Friend of the Court: On the Front Lines with the First Amendment - Hardcover

Abrams, Floyd

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0300190875 ISBN 13: 9780300190878

Publisher: Yale University Press, 2013

Synopsis

Since 1971, when the Pentagon Papers were leaked to the New York Times and furious debate over First Amendment rights ensued, free-speech cases have emerged in rapid succession. Floyd Abrams has been on the front lines of nearly every one of these major cases, which is also to say that, more than any other person, he has forged this country’s legal understanding of free speech. Litigating everything from national-security and prior-restraint issues to controversies concerning the law of libel and attempts by local officials to censor art, Abrams has worked devotedly to protect the First Amendment, the “crown jewel” of America’s Constitution.

 

This collection of Abrams’s writings gathers speeches, articles, debates, briefs, oral arguments, and testimony from his entire career. The writings illuminate topics of ongoing import: WikiLeaks, the correctness of the Citizens United case, journalist shield laws, and, not least, the responsibilities of the press. An exceptional writer and a brilliant thinker, Abrams offers a unique perspective on the First Amendment and the unparalleled rights it confers.

About this title

About the Author

Floyd Abrams, a partner in the law firm of Cahill, Gordon & Reinde, has taught at Columbia School of Journalism, Yale Law School, and Columbia Law School.

Reviews

In his long career, Abrams has been involved in most of the major cases challenging and defining free speech, from the Pentagon Papers to Citizens United to WikiLeaks. In this highly accessible collection of speeches, letters, testimony, and public debate, Abrams explores the landscape of free-speech issues in the U.S. during the past 50 years. He argues that free speech is not an ideological concept, noting its use by liberals to defend organized labor and civil rights and antiwar protestors and by conservatives to defend antiabortion protestors and corporate support for political candidates. Abrams devotes sections to press freedom, libel and privacy issues, international perspectives, national security, copyright laws in the Internet age, and free-speech conflicts in various presidential administrations, including those of Roosevelt, Reagan, Clinton, and George W. Bush. Devoting an entire section to the Citizens United case, Abrams addresses criticism of his position in support of corporate free speech. In his final chapter, he reflects on complex free-speech issues that defy political ideology. --Vanessa Bush

Edition details

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0300190875
• ISBN 13: 9780300190878
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 488