Final answer:
The Supreme Court ruled in the case of New York Times Co. v. United States that the government could not prevent the publication of the Pentagon Papers by the New York Times. They determined that the right to impose prior restraint on the media is limited, and the government did not have a strong enough reason to prevent the publication of the classified study of the Vietnam War.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Supreme Court ruled that the government could not prevent publication of the Pentagon Papers by the New York Times in a case known as New York Times Co. v. United States. In this case, the U.S. government sued the New York Times and the Washington Post to stop the release of information from a classified study of the Vietnam War. The Supreme Court ruled that while the government can impose prior restraint on the media, that right is very limited, and the publications of the Pentagon Papers did not present a strong enough reason for the government to prevent their publication.