Waller v. Georgia (1983)
- Docket
- 83-321
- Decided
- 1983-01-01
Summary
Question: Did the closure of the hearing violate the right to a public trial under the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments? Conclusion: In a unanimous decision, the Court held that the Sixth Amendment right to a public trial applied to suppression hearings. The Court found that the "aims and interests" of public trials were "no less pressing in a hearing to suppress wrongfully seized evidence." The Court noted that the presumption of openness for trials could be overcome only by overriding interests based on findings that closure was absolutely necessary to preserve higher values and was narrowly tailored to serve those interests.