Judge Leonard Sand’s enduring contribution to freedom of the press should be included among the tributes being paid him. His 1991 decision in The Nation Magazine v. U.S. Department of Defense, 762 F.Supp 1558, came in a case brought during the first Persian Gulf War by 14 writers and media organizations who challenged Pentagon restrictions on press access to battlefields where U.S. forces engage in combat.
Beginning with the invasion of Grenada, the Defense Department adopted policies of preventing media access to the battlefield except through escorted press pools. There was a belief among some in government that a “lesson of Vietnam” was that unfiltered news coverage of the battlefield could lead the public to question some military missions.
