There are few absolutes in American constitutional law, but over generations of jurisprudence, it’s well established that except in the narrowest of circumstances, government may not preemptively suppress journalists from revealing information. The seminal case here was the New York Times’ 1971 reports on The Pentagon Papers, in which the executive branch claimed publication would harm soldiers in the field in an ongoing war. The Supreme Court said sorry: The First Amendment, which protects the press especially when it is acting in the public interest, safeguarded the right to publish.
