Speaking Freely: Trials of the First Amendment [Hardcover]

Floyd Abrams (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 11, 2005

From the Patriot Act to Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl show, recent events have embroiled America’s First Amendment rights in ongoing battles to maintain this country’s freedom of expression. And with the media taking an ever-more prominent role in the lifestyles of all citizens, the First Amendment continues to be one of the most hotly and dramatically contested issues in the public eye.

Now, with Speaking Freely, Floyd Abrams, the attorney on the front lines of America’s fight for uncensored expression for more than thirty years, re-creates eight of the most important cases of his career—landmark trials and Supreme Court arguments in cases involving key First Amendment protections, including the famous Pentagon Papers case. With adversaries as diverse as Richard Nixon, Wayne Newton, and Rudy Giuliani, and allies as unlikely as Kenneth Starr and Senator Mitch McConnell, Abrams takes readers behind the scenes to examine his strategies, the ramifications of each of the decisions, and the long-term significance of each case, while presenting a clear and compelling look at the law in action.

In the tradition of bestselling authors on legal issues such as F. Lee Bailey, Louis Nizer, and Alan Dershowitz, Floyd Abrams conveys the dramatic immediacy of the trials and appeals in which First Amendment law has been created—and addresses the continuing importance of upholding America’s constitutional right to free speech.

Editorial Reviews

From 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.)
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From Booklist

Abrams, an ardent legal defender of First Amendment rights for more than 30 years, brings immediacy to this analysis of how challenges to free-speech rights are affecting the ability of the U.S. to come to a clear consensus on how those rights should be applied. He re-creates eight of the most significant cases of his career, demonstrating the broad range of challenges to the First Amendment. The cases include the Pentagon Papers and Nixon's efforts to squelch publication of highly classified analysis of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, Mayor Giuliani's efforts to close a controversial exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum, defense of NBC in a libel suit brought by Wayne Newton, two cases raising challenges to truth as a defense for the press, and defense of a senator and broadcasters in a case involving political campaigns. Abrams offers background on the issues involved in the cases, as well as his legal strategies, and the fascinating characters engaged in the disputes. This highly accessible book should have wide appeal for lawyers, journalists, and students interested in First Amendment issues. Vernon Ford
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult (April 11, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670033758
• ISBN-13: 978-0670033751
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #966,438 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well worth a read even if you disagree, April 16, 2005

By 

MotherLodeBeth "MotherLodeBeth" (Sierras of California) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Speaking Freely: Trials of the First Amendment (Hardcover)

Have just begun the book and already I can say say it is a fair, must read for anyone, conservative or liberal or middle roader who wants to see or know why the First Amendment is such a national treausre. And how no matter who is in office, attempts to censor are always a concern. The liberals want to restrict hate speech, cigarette advertising while the conservatives seem hell bent on restricting free speech rights of post 911 Arab Americans or anything having to do with the military. And the author is a constant reminder to all of us, citizens, that we can easily loose Constitutional rights if we do not fight to keep them.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Speaking Truth to Power and Popularity, June 11, 2005

By 

Simon Donnybrook (Kansas City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Speaking Freely: Trials of the First Amendment (Hardcover)

Noted Attorney Floyd Abrams presents a balanced, mostly non-partisan look at the trials and tribulations of modern free speech in his new book, Speaking Freely. This is no arid scholarly commentary on famous cases taken from the court reporter's minutes. Instead, Speaking Freely is straight from Abrams' front row seat as an attorney arguing before courts across the land all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States.

Abrams examines cases which involve everything from his first appearance before the Supreme Court, arguing in defense of the New York Times against the Nixon administration's attempt to block printing of the Pentagon Papers in its pages to defending NBC investigative reporter Brian Ross against Las Vegas icon Wayne "Las Vegas' Most Admired Citizen" Newton.

Abrams is refreshingly candid about these experiences and several others in this intellectually weighty but still breezy page-turner about the right to free speech. It is also a caution to those who would blithely support current Bush Administration tactics to curb free speech in the name of "security." Abrams, without a heavy hand, shows just how fragile the whole concept is when in the hands of those seeking political power or the expediency of easy answers to grievances.

The chapter on Wayne Newton is enjoyable in a "True Hollywood Story" kind of way. In it, Newton is described as having mafia ties by NBC reporter Ross in a 1980's televised news broadcast. It is immediately evident that Abrams has no love for Newton or Las Vegas, and says so. His opening sentence in the Wayne Newton chapter quotes Otto Friedrich, who said that Vegas "is what hell might be like if it had been planned and built by New York gangsters."

Abrams also sets the mood by describing Las Vegas' McCarran airport:

"It is always something of a shock to land there in Las Vegas's airport (named after Pat McCarran, a particularly repellent and reactionary senator,) filled with screaming slot machines."

Abrams spares no evidence that Newton was involved with shady characters in a deal involving the Aladdin Hotel and Casino, and that the NBC report that Newton had perjured himself before the Nevada Gaming Commission was correct. Wayne Newton ("the embodiment of Las Vegas") disagreed and sued for libel.

Abrams' wry commentary on Las Vegas and the smarmy Newton are interesting on their own merits, but his play-by-play of the discovery, trial and twelve years of legal wrangling are the real meat of this true story. We learn of the dangers of trying a hometown hero before his hometown, and the importance of preserving free speech when speaking truth to power and popularity.

Speaking Freely also goes in-depth into Abrams work opposing former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's attempts to bully the Brooklyn Museum into censoring artwork; McCarthyism and Libel, Campaign Finance Reform as a possible danger to free speech and more.

The chapters are engaging, the writing sprinkled with character studies of the players and the often amusing observances of the people involved. Abrams has his biases, but he clearly loves the law first and foremost. This book is a balanced, intellectually honest and excellent introduction into how our court system works-and also how it occasionally does not.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Floyd Abrams, September 24, 2009

By 

John M. Gaudette - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Speaking Freely: Trials of the First Amendment (Paperback)

I read this book in between "The Nine" by Jeffery Toobin The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court and "The Brethren" by Bob WoodwardThe Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court. I almost gave up reading law related books because of it. The book is to be a list of cases he has been involved in and what he did in them--but it lacks any of the draw of a real insider account. It isn't a book about free speech it is more about Floyd Abrams and what he does. The few things you couldn't know otherwise are limited to his thoughts at the time (might I lose this case again?) for the most part. As far as law related books go there are better ones that are more interesting.