Make No Law: The Sullivan Case and the First Amendment

Description

A crucial and compelling account of New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, the landmark Supreme Court case that redefined libel, from the Pulitzer Prize–winning legal journalist Anthony Lewis. The First Amendment puts it this way: "Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press." Yet, in 1960, a city official in Montgomery, Alabama, sued The New York Times for libel—and was awarded $500,000 by a local jury—because the paper had published an ad critical of Montgomery's brutal response to civil rights protests. The centuries of legal precedent behind the Sullivan case and the U.S. Supreme Court's historic reversal of the original verdict are expertly chronicled in this gripping and wonderfully readable book by the Pulitzer Prize Pulitzer Prize–winning legal journalist Anthony Lewis. It is our best account yet of a case that redefined what newspapers—and ordinary citizens—can print or say. Other Books by This Author About the Author Title Page Copyright Dedication Acknowledgments Contents 1. Heed Their Rising Voices 2. Reaction in Montgomery 3. Separate and Unequal 4. The Trial 5. Silencing the Press 6. The Meaning of Freedom 7. The Sedition Act 8. World War I 9. Holmes and Brandeis, Dissenting 10. “The Vitalizing Liberties” 11. To the Supreme Court 12. “There Never is a Time” 13. May it Please the Court 14. “The Central Meaning of the First Amendment” 15. What it Meant 16. Inside the Court 17. Public and Private 18. “The Dancing has Stopped” 19. Back to the Drawing Board? 20. Envoi Appendix 1: First Draft of Justice Brennan’s Opinion in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan Appendix 2: Opinions in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan by Justices Brennan, Black and Goldberg Notes Table of Cases