Which constitutional issue was debated after the release of the Pentagon Papers

The Times published a series of front-page articles based on the information contained in the Pentagon Papers. After the third article, the U. S. Department of Justice got a temporary restraining order against further publication of the material, arguing that it was detrimental to U. S. national security.

In the now-famous case of New York Times Co. v. United States, the Times and the Washington Post joined forces to fight for the right to publish, and on June 30 the U. S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the government had failed to prove harm to national security, and that publication of the papers was justified under the First Amendment’s protection of freedom of the press.