Answer: The government had to prove that the articles would have had to indisputably harm the nation for it's censorship to have been acceptable.
Step-by-step explanation:
The ruling for the New York Times v. the United States was "heard by the Supreme Court." The ruling was in favor of the newspapers to be able to publish classified articles without the worry of being arrested or the newspaper shut down.
With this ruling, both the New York Times and Wall Street Journal were able to publish the Pentagon papers that President Nixon didn't want to be released. The president tried to say he had executive authority to suspend the newspaper and not allow the articles to be published, and this is why the newspaper went to the Supreme Court.