In 1927 the publisher Jay M. Near - whose muck-raking newspaper The Saturday Press indulged his anti-Semitic, anti-black, anti-Catholic and anti-labor prejudices - was put out of business by a Minnesota gag law. This law allowed a single judge to bar publication of any newspaper found to be "malicious, scandalous or defamatory," set a dangerous precedent for prior restraint of publication, and curtailed freedom of the press. Near's case was eventually taken up by Colonel McCormick, the powerful publisher of the Chicago Tribune, who paid for the appeal to the Supreme Court. In 1931 Near v. Minnesota was decided 5 to 4 in Near's favor - a decision that bears directly on freedom of the press today. "Ranging from the sleaze of the Minnesota underworld to the often bitchy byplay among members of the Supreme DcCourt, [Friendly] has done a marvelous job." - The Los Angeles Times Book Review