Answer:
free speech under the First Amendment of the Constitution
. ... The trial took place in 1960, in a segregated court room in Montgomery, before a white judge and all-white jury
Step-by-step explanation:
New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 (1964), was a landmark decision of the US Supreme Court ruling that the freedom of speech protections in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution restrict the ability of American public officials to sue for defamation.
The United States Supreme Court ruled unanimously on March 9, 1964, in The New York Times v. Sullivan that the Constitution prohibits a public official from recovering damages for a defamatory falsehood related to his official conduct. ... Sullivan, he was in favor of an entirely different approach to libel.