Fair Trial, Freer Press

In the wake of the American Bar Association's newly adopted free-press, fair-trial rules (TIME, March 1), a committee for the U.S. Judicial Conference last week announced its own proposed set of guidelines. Worried newsmen will be pleased. The committee, headed by U.S. Judge Irving Kaufman, agreed with the A.B.A. that lawyers and court officials should not be permitted to reveal any but a few basic, spare facts. But unlike the A.B.A., the Kaufman group is against barring newsmen from pretrial hearings and portions of the trial not heard by the jury. And it opposes the A.B.A. suggestion that newsmen be held in contempt if they willfully publish material designed to affect the outcome of a trial. Such a course, says the Kaufman committee, would be "both unwise and poses serious constitutional problems." A copy of the committee's proposals will be circulated to every federal judge for comment, and in September the full Judicial Conference, which is headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren, will be asked to pass a final draft.

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