KCST-TV CHANNEL 39 v. Municipal Court

KCST-TV Channel 39’s petition for mandate asks us to vacate a municipal court order temporarily prohibiting it from publicly exhibiting an artist’s rendering of the facial features of Alvin Quarles, made during Quarles’s arraignment on multiple charges arising from a series of highly publicized sexual assaults. We conclude the drawing was lawfully obtained during a public criminal proceeding and long-standing Supreme Court precedent establishes the court’s prohibitory order is an unconstitutional prior restraint violating the First Amendment. We grant the petition and issue a peremptory writ.

When Quarles was arraigned, the court granted Channel 39’s request for permission to film and electronically record the proceedings subject to a limitation that no frontal photographs of Quarles be taken. (Cal. Rules of Court, rule 980(b).) The limitation on photography was imposed after both the People and Quarles expressed concerns that other victims in numerous cases still being investigated might view newscasts containing photographs of Quarles before making identification at a live lineup, thus permitting impeaching attacks on the validity of later in-court identification.…