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Note: 

Robert N. Brailas, Press Access to Government-Controlled Information and the Alternative Means Test, 59 TEXAS L. REV. 1279 (1981). 

This note surveys the emerging first amendment right of the press to have access to government-controlled information.  Brailas argues that in at least some situations the first amendment does contemplate a positive right of press access to government-controlled information.  He then argues that the current approach to deciding whether press in fact have a right to any given piece of information – alternative means analysis – is misguided for two reasons.  First, it violates the Court’s traditional solicitude for first amendment interests.  Second, it sets an impossibly high standard of proof for allowing press access.