Decision of the Court

The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in favor of the New York Times and the Washington Post, which was the second paper that the “Pentagon Papers” had been leaked to. "Any system of prior restraints of expression comes to this Court bearing a heavy presumption against its constitutional validity." Near v. Minnesota (1931). (http://www.law.umkc.edu/)“The Court held that there was a heavy burden on the government in that all prior restraint on publication are unconstitutional under the First Amendment, and that the government had not overcome this burden.” (www.studyworld.com) There was a great division of opinions among the Justices, even the ones that ruled in favor of the papers had differing reasons why.