Vaughn v. State

According to the Georgia Constitution “[n]o law shall be passed to curtail or restrain the freedom of speech or of the press.” Ga. Const. 1983, Art. I, Sec. I, Par. V. We are asked to decide whether *327this proscription is violated by laws1 construed to allow a grand jury to subpoena a newspaper reporter and, when he refuses to divulge the identity of a person who was the source for a published article revealing information about the drug scene in the locale, allow a judge to hold the reporter in contempt and order his punishment.

The facts (as reported in the majority opinion) are very important…