General & Miscellaneous Law, Civil Rights Law, Civil & Human Rights, U.S. Politics - General & Miscellaneous, Constitutional Law

Speaking Freely

Name: Speaking Freely
Author: Floyd Abrams
ISBN: 9780143036753

by Floyd Abrams

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Overview

The rights guaranteed in the First Amendment—including freedom of expression—are among the fundamental touchstones of our democracy. In Speaking Freely, Floyd Abrams, who for over thirty years has been our most eloquent and respected advocate for uncensored expression, recounts some of the major cases of his remarkable career—landmark trials and Supreme Court arguments that have involved key First Amendment protections.With adversaries as diverse as Richard Nixon and Wayne Newton and allies as unlikely as Kenneth Starr, Abrams takes readers behind the scenes to explain his strategies, the ramifications of each decision, and its long-term significance, presenting a clear and compelling look at the law in action.

Synopsis

America's most famous First Amendment litigator chronicles the fight to uphold our most cherished Constitutional rights

The rights guaranteed in the First Amendment—including freedom of expression—are among the fundamental touchstones of our democracy. In Speaking Freely, Floyd Abrams, who for over thirty years has been our most eloquent and respected advocate for uncensored expression, recounts some of the major cases of his remarkable career—landmark trials and Supreme Court arguments that have involved key First Amendment protections. With adversaries as diverse as Richard Nixon and Wayne Newton and allies as unlikely as Kenneth Starr, Abrams takes readers behind the scenes to explain his strategies, the ramifications of each decision, and its long-term significance, presenting a clear and compelling look at the law in action.

“Charming, engaging, and often compelling.”
—The Washington Post
“The best litigators are great storytellers, and the stories this litigator tells here are intrinsically interesting.”
—The New York Observer

The New York Times - Jeffrey Rosen

If I were a real lawyer, I'd like to be Floyd Abrams. The most sought-after First Amendment litigator of his generation, he has championed free speech in some of the highest-profile courtroom battles of the past 30 years, several of them on behalf of The New York Times. In Speaking Freely, his first book, Abrams writes engagingly about the First Amendment dramas in which he played a starring role. By the end of the book, though, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that free-speech conflicts today have less easily identifiable heroes and villains than they once did.

About the Author, Floyd Abrams

Floyd Abrams is a senior partner at Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP, in New York City. Described by Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan as “the most significant First Amendment lawyer of our age,” Abrams is currently the William J. Brennan Visiting Professor at the Columbia University School of Journalism.

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Editorials

Jeffrey Rosen

Publishers Weekly

In 1971, a young lawyer made his first appearance before the Supreme Court, successfully defending the New York Times against the Nixon administration's attempt to block publication of the Pentagon Papers. With that case, the cause of free speech found a formidable advocate. Abrams recounts his role in several landmark cases as he became the legal icon of an era of unparalleled extension of First Amendment protections. Most illuminating are Abrams's detailed explanations of the legal and psychological tactics he has used before the Supreme Court. He also creates some vividly villainous portraits of his antagonists, most notably Rudolph Giuliani ("deeply contemptuous of the First Amendment"), who was sued by the Brooklyn Museum of Art over his attempts to cut its financing after a controversial exhibit. Abrams rarely steps back from his courtroom reconstructions to make a more comprehensive argument for his nearly absolutist reading of the First Amendment. Only in describing his fight against the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law does Abrams reason more broadly, and his powerful argument makes a reader wish the whole book had been more expansive. Still, Abrams conveys the nuance of constitutional law, the grappling for incremental advances in precedent, the interplay between the needs of his clients and the larger cause of free speech, and the sheer intellectual pleasure of legal disputation. (Apr.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Kirkus Reviews

An up-close-and-personal account of the last 50 years in First Amendment law. Abrams, a leading First Amendment attorney, focuses on nine cases that were central both to his career and to interpretation of the right to free speech in the U.S. He's a ferocious champion of the First Amendment in each of these cases. They range from the Pentagon Papers to McConnell v. Federal Election Commission, in which Abrams challenged the constitutionality of the McCain-Feingold Act. Chapter Seven, which deals with the Brooklyn Museum case, is particularly intriguing. In 1999, the museum mounted a show called "Sensation," which caused a sensation, in part because it included a painting that used elephant dung in a depiction of the Virgin Mary. New York City Mayor Giuliani, who emerges in these pages as hell-bent on "doing the one thing the First Amendment most clearly forbids: using the power of the government to restrict or punish speech critical of government itself," was offended by the painting and attempted to pull city funding from the exhibit. An ensuing lawsuit landed at the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, with Abrams at the victorious helm. The last chapter here is interesting, but feels a mite tacked on. Rather than focusing on a particular case, Abrams contrasts American law with English, European and international law. In general, free speech is more robustly protected in the States-except, Abrams ominously intones, when it comes to journalists' right to protect their sources. On this question, the U.S. protects the press less rigorously than many European countries. Abrams's subject matter is sophisticated, and his approach is pitched at a higher levelthan much that passes for today's commentary on current events. Complex yet lucidly conveyed points of constitutional interpretation, never bogged in jargon.