University of Chicago Legal Forum Volume 2020 12/01/2020 Article 13 2020 The Majoritarian Press Clause Sonja R. West Follow this and additional works at: https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/uclf Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation West, Sonja R. (2020) "The Majoritarian Press Clause," University of Chicago Legal Forum: Vol. 2020 , Article 13. Available at: https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/uclf/vol2020/iss1/13 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Chicago Unbound. It has been accepted for inclusion in University of Chicago Legal Forum by an authorized editor of Chicago Unbound. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. The Majoritarian Press Clause Sonja R. West† INTRODUCTION In early 2018, stories began circulating that something troubling was happening at the United States––Mexico border. The reports claimed that the United States government was separating migrant families and then holding children (as well as adults) by the thousands in crowded, possibly inhumane environments. There were alarming ac- counts of children who were sick, dirty, hungry, neglected, and sleeping on concrete floors.1 Americans, of course, demanded answers: What was happening at these migrant detention centers? Why was it happening? What were the official policies involved? Were the government’s actions appropri- ate? Were they legal? In other words, this was a textbook example of an issue crying out for an “uninhibited, robust, and wide-open”2 public de- bate. But before that could happen, the public needed to know what, ex- actly, was going on. The limited and sporadic information made it diffi- cult for concerned citizens to understand the issues, and the often-un- familiar sources behind these reports led to confusion about who or what to believe.