Jonathan Blades v. United States

Several clear principles have emerged from the case law on a criminal defendant's Sixth Amendment right to a public trial. We know that the purpose of this right is to benefit the accused, Gannett Co. v. DePasquale , 443 U.S. 368, 380, 99 S.Ct. 2898, 61 L.Ed.2d 608 (1979), and that the right is at least as protective as the press and the public's First Amendment right to public trial, Waller v. Georgia , 467 U.S. 39, 46, 104 S.Ct. 2210, 81 L.Ed.2d 31 (1984). We know that contemporaneous review of court proceedings is critical to the right's protections,1 and that a transcript is therefore not…