To determine whether U.S. Supreme Court judges have a systematic attitude toward court cases dealing with the law of newsgathering and fair trial-free press, and whether that attitude can help predict the outcome of the pending case Press-Enterprise Co. v. Superior Court (II), this paper applies an attitudinal theory from the field of social psychology to judicial behavior in relevant court cases. Relevant legal theories, extensive methodology, and access to the judicial process are discussed, followed by an in-depth consideration of the Press-Enterprise v. Superior Court case (in which media sought access to sealed transcripts of a murder trial in progress) and a prediction of the outcome. The ensuing discussion notes that: (1) an attitudinal theory can be applied by ascertaining the attitudes of the justices, explaining their past behavior, and predicting their future behavior; (2) the attitudinal referent of First Amendment access to pretrial hearings can be satisfactorily scaled, on which the outcome of the Press-Enterprise v. Superior Court case can be predicted; and (3) if the prediction that media will win by a vote of 6 to 3 proves true, the attitudinal theory still will be not be "proven"--either outcome will merely provide a measure of confirmation in a system of competing theories with differing levels of explanation. (JD)