Jacksonville Television, Inc. v. Florida Department of Health & Rehabilitative Services
Jacksonville Television, Inc. v. Florida Department of Health & Rehabilitative Services
Opinion of the Court
Jacksonville Television, Inc. petitions this court for a writ of certiorari to review an order of the circuit court which prohibited the airing of a video interview without certain restrictions. Because the challenged portion of the order is an impermissible prior restraint, we grant the petition and quash the order in part.
M.A.B., J.B., and J.M.B. are children who were previously adjudicated dependent by the Circuit Court in and for Duval County. On September 26, 1994, Circuit Judge Karen K. Cole issued an order which set a hearing for the following day on whether a restrictive and/or closure order should issue in the cause. Copies of the order were provided to the parents and their counsel, the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services (HRS), the Guardian ad Litem, the Florida Times Union newspaper, and Jacksonville Television, Inc. The style of the order listed
Jacksonville Television, Inc. argues as follows: The order which it received regarding the hearing contained the names of the children and only mentioned the possibility of closure or restrictions on the hearing. Therefore, the interview taped with the mother was not contrary to any statute or court order. Because the order is a prior restraint, it bears a heavy presumption of unconstitutionality. Nebraska Press Ass’n v. Stuart, 427 U.S. 539, 96 S.Ct. 2791, 49 L.Ed.2d 683 (1976). Information in the hands of the press may not be prohibited from publication unless the need for secrecy is manifestly overwhelming. Florida Publishing Co. v. Brooke, 576 So.2d 842 (Fla. 1st DCA 1991). No federal or Florida appellate court has held that a child’s interest in privacy outweighs the constitutional right of the press and public to speak freely on matters that became known before closure. Retroactive measures cannot change the fact that information was already in the public domain and that publicity has already occurred. And finally, the findings of the trial court, even if taken as true, fall short of the “manifestly overwhelming” standard that must be met to overcome the heavy presumption of unconstitutionality of a prior restraint.
The foster parents of the children and HRS oppose the petition for writ of certiorari and argue as follows: The trial court properly balanced First Amendment interests with the privacy interests of the children to fashion a remedy. The children in this proceeding are innocent victims and their rights should be given greater protection than those of juveniles accused of criminal activity. Therefore, Oklahoma Publishing v. District Court In and For Oklahoma County, 430 U.S. 308, 97 S.Ct. 1045, 51 L.Ed.2d 355 (1977) and Butterworth v. Smith, 494 U.S. 624, 110 S.Ct. 1376, 108 L.Ed.2d 572 (1990) are distinguishable. The inadvertent disclosure of the children’s names does not preclude the restrictive order of the trial court, and the trial court’s remedy was properly narrow in scope to accomplish the legitimate purpose of protecting the privacy of these children.
We conclude that the portion of the trial court’s order which restricts the petitioner’s right to broadcast the interview is an unconstitutional prior restraint. The scrutiny to be applied to a prior restraint is, if anything, more stringent than that applied in reviewing a criminal sanction for publication. Smith v. Daily Mail Publishing Co., 443 U.S. 97, 102, 99 S.Ct. 2667, 2670, 61 L.Ed.2d
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.