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Trials-Right To "Public Trial"-Power Of Judge To Exclude General Public, Francis T. Goheen

Michigan Law Review

Convinced of the desirability of such action, a judge, conducting the trial of a criminal case, wishes to clear the court room of all or a portion of the spectators. To what extent may he legitimately do so? He is necessarily limited by the provision in the constitution of almost every state and in the Sixth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States that in "all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial." The extent to which the trial court may go in clearing the court room has been most often tested …