The Sacramento Bee Contempt Case
The Sacramento Bee contempt case is now before the Supreme Court of the state. The facts appear simply these: In a case before Judge G. P. Catlin in the Superior Court of Sacramento County, May 27, the Bee reporter published the testimony. The judge declared it to be a “grossly false statement,” etc. Editor McClatchy retorted that the report was true and that the judge was not. Whereupon the judge fined him $500 for contempt. The court would not allow the Bee to prove the report true, or the court reporter’s notes incorrect, even by the court reporter himself. The Bee has an array of able legal counsel: Hon. P. Reddy, Hon. D. M. Delmas, Garrett W. McEnerney, Samuel M. Shortridge, and John E. Richards, and the case will be a noted one, involving not only the principle of the freedom of the press, but the limit of the power of courts.