Quick and Public: We Should Adjust Our Courts to Fit
   So, along comes the court, and warns Jeremy Johnson to quit talking about the federal case against him. 
   I don't like the warning, though I do wonder but what Johnson probably is being unfair in a lot of what he is saying. Is he tainting the potential jury, by speaking out so much? Seems to me, everything should be on the table in a court case, anyway. Maybe, rather than expecting the jury to come to the case with lilly-clean minds, get the case started earlier, and let everything that the press brings up get immediate attention in the court.
   Instead of worrying about the case being tried in the media, try everything the media brings up in the court.
   I'm just trying to think how things would be if we applied the Sixth Amendment. "In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury . . ."
   If it's to be a public trial, why not make it fit together with information that becomes public, instead of trying to shield the public out?
   I do see a counter argument to what I'm saying, though. If every time the press covered the case, the court found itself scurrying to consider the new evidence, the case might, indeed, end up getting tried by the press. Each media outlet would be competing more than ever to uncover new evidence. Plus, the jury might be in session an awfully long time, if we are not careful. The way we work it now, the case proceeds to the point where it is ready for the jury, then the jury spends but a few days and all is settled. You're not being drawn out by the latest piece of evidence.
   Part of the answer might be that we could try the case quickly, cutting off new evidence at a point, and coming to (if you want to call it that) a binding but preliminary decision, binding in that unless an appellate court overruled the decision, it would stand, but preliminary in that the decision could be appealed.
   We already have an appellate process, anyway, and many a case goes that route, anyway. Why not get them started and on their way a little quicker? Plus, if you do act quickly, those in the media aren't going to have much time to come up with evidence of their own.