Supreme Court strikes down Minnesota's newspaper gag law 5-4 in Near v. Minnesota, establishing that prior restraints on publication face a near-absolute constitutional bar

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 on June 1, 1931, that Minnesota's Public Nuisance Abatement Law was an unconstitutional prior restraint on press freedom under the First and Fourteenth Amendments. Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes' majority opinion held that prior restraints on publication — court orders suppressing newspapers before they publish — carry a heavy presumption of unconstitutionality because they prevent expression before it reaches the public rather than punishing false or harmful speech afterward. Hughes acknowledged narrow exceptions permitting prior restraint: publication of troop movements in wartime, obscene material, and incitement to imminent violence.