Freedom for the Thought That We Hate : A Biography of the First Amendment

More than any other people on earth, Americans are free to say and write what they think. The media can air the secrets of the White House, the boardroom, or the bedroom with little fear of punishment or penalty. The reason for this extraordinary freedom is not a superior culture of tolerance, but just fourteen words in our most fundamental legal document: the free expression clauses of the First Amendment to the Constitution. In Lewis’s telling, the story of how the right of free expression evolved along with our nation makes a compelling case for the adaptability of our constitution. Although Americans have gleefully and sometimes outrageously exercised their right to free speech since before the nation’s founding, the Supreme Court did not begin to recognize this right until 1919. Freedom of speech and the press as we know it today is surprisingly recent. Anthony Lewis tells us how these rights were created, revealing a story of hard choices, heroic (and some less heroic) judges, and fascinating and eccentric defendants who forced the legal system to come face-to-face with one of America’s great founding ideas. More than any other people on earth, Americans are free to say and write what they think. The media can air the secrets of the White House, the boardroom, or the bedroom with little fear of punishment or penalty. The reason for this extraordinary freedom is not a superior culture of tolerance, but just fourteen words in our most fundamental legal document: the free expression clauses of the First Amendment to the Constitution. In this book, the story of how the right of free expression evolved along with our nation makes a compelling case for the adaptability of our constitution. Although Americans have gleefully and sometimes outrageously exercised their right to free speech since before the nation's founding, the Supreme Court did not begin to recognize this right until 1919. Freedom of speech and the press as we know it today is surprisingly recent. The author tells us how these rights were created, revealing a story of hard choices, heroic (and some less heroic) judges, and fascinating and eccentric defendants who forced the legal system to come face-to-face with one of America's great founding ideas

from One Of The Country’s Most Esteemed Experts On The First Amendment And The Author Of The Classic gideon’s Trumpet, An Eloquent Essay On The Importance Of Freedom Of Expression

The Barnes & Noble Review

You Might Figure That Decades Spent Examining Government Would Turn A Fellow Into A Dejected Cynic. Thus, It Is Heartening That Anthony Lewis, The Longtime new York Times Op-ed Page Columnist And Veteran Supreme Court Observer, Still Feels So Much Reverence For The Federal Government's Judicial Branch. Indeed, His Reverence Is Not Just Heartening, It's Infectious. At A Time When The Judiciary Comes Under Frequent Attack, His freedom For The Thought That We Hate Makes A Compelling Case That Our Much-maligned Judges Deserve Credit For Many Of The Great Advances In The Quality -- And Decency -- Of American Society.

CONTENTS 8 INTRODUCTION 10 Beginnings 18 “Odious or Contemptible” 28 “As All Life Is an Experiment” 40 Defining Freedom 56 Freedom and Privacy 76 A Press Privilege? 98 Fear Itself 118 “Another’s Lyric” 148 “Vagabonds and Outlaws” 160 Thoughts That We Hate 174 Balancing Interests 186 Freedom of Thought 200 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 208 TABLE OF CASES 210 NOTES 214 INDEX 226 Basic Ideas 240 Chronicles the history of the free expression clauses of the First Amendment, describing the judges, lawyers, and activists that participated in the legal and political conflicts over freedom of speech and the press in the United States.