Justice in Plain Sight
How a Small-Town Newspaper and Its Unlikely Lawyer Opened America’s Courtrooms
With the importance of a free press and the rule of law rightly in the national conversation, Dan Bernstein’s Justice in Plain Sight is a timely release, detailing a California paper’s Supreme Court battles over the press and public’s access to court proceedings.
Based in Riverside, California, the Press-Enterprise was a Pulitzer-awarded daily paper that twice sued when courts tried to limit its ability to cover high-profile cases. The first time, in 1980, the paper was blocked from covering jury selections in the death-penalty trial of Albert Greenwood Brown, who raped and murdered a teenage girl on her way to school. The next year, it was prevented from covering pre-trial hearings for Robert Rubane Diaz, a nurse who killed a series of patients under his care. In both instances, the Supreme Court ultimately needed to balance the public’s right to a transparent justice system against defendants’ claims that such coverage would interfere with a fair trial.
Bernstein’s book is laser focused on these two landmark cases and provides no shortage of valuable context. Members of the Press-Enterprise‘s leadership and the paper’s legal team become compelling characters, from colorful editors to Jim Ward, a career business lawyer who found himself arguing important constitutional cases at the highest level. Bernstein profiles each of the Supreme Court justices hearing the cases and their experiences to that point, while including numerous excerpts from the legal briefs and partial transcripts of the arguments before the Court.
The considerable research, numerous interviews, and primary documentation combine to make Justice in Plain Sight a comprehensive look at two landmark cases and the underdog newspaper that ensured that the justice process can’t operate in secret.
Reviewed by
Jeff Fleischer
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
