The majority opinion was of Justice Brennan. .
The New York Times v. Sullivan was an important case from start to finish and today because of its role in the Civil Rights Movement as well as in the Constitutional Law. Anthony Lewis writes in great detail the events that took place. He writes about the first trail and on the Justice Brennan's hardship of finalizing his opinion four years later. I find these two events to contrast a great deal, not just because one is Circuit Court and the other is the Supreme Court. It is remarkably different because of the effort the Justices put behind their decision for justice to prevail; where as the Judge in the Circuit Court had his own agenda. .
The case was tried before Walter Burgwyn Jones, who wrote the Alabama Pleading and Practice Law, as well as The Confederate Creed. The jury consisted of twelve white men whose named were published in the Alabama Journal. Everything was against the New York Times and the four black ministers who were represented by black lawyers. The people who enforced segregation and encouraged racism were also the ones who were suppose to enforce the constitution. .
Sullivan's argument in the case was that he was associated because of the mention of police and that the statements were false. He has six witnesses in his defense that claimed that this effected Sullivan's reputation in a bad way. One of the witnesses was Hall. The other five where friends and general public who felt that if the statements were true would feel differently towards Sullivan but admitted that they did not believe the statements. .
The New York Times defended that they had no reason to feel that the statements were false because many people signed it. The four ministers argued in their defense that they had no knowledge that their name was being used for the advertisement. .
The judge told the jury that the "challenged the statements in the ad were libelous per se.