Open Means Open Means
Floyd Abrams

Floyd Abrams

Country Unknown
Born Tuesday, 30 November -0001
Category Social Activists
Quotes 31

About Author

Lawyer

Quotes by Floyd Abrams

Title Category
When I began we did not really have a lot of First Amendment law. It is really surprising to think of it this way, but a lot of the law - most of the law that relates to the First Amendment freedom of the press in America - is really within living memory. Uncategorized
Were this not Texas, were there not a state where there were no protections at all and where the law was clear on that, I think CBS and Mary Mapes and Dan Rather and all of us had a very good chance of winning. So this is an ongoing battle about an issue of principle. Uncategorized
This is going right to the police. So, it's a very dangerous precedent. Uncategorized
There are some circumstances in which the First Amendment interest comes up against another interest that is really important and in which we have to make a decision in a particular case as to which is more important. Uncategorized
The question at the end of the day was, the courts having found there was no defense, a producer about to go to jail, should CBS in effect tell the producer go to jail even though there is no law at all that we can use to get you out of jail? Uncategorized
The principle though remains the same, and the important thing is CBS fought hard, very hard, to protect that principle and will fight again. Uncategorized
The government would be able to go to court with respect to newspaper articles, broadcast pieces and the like that they thought were bad or harmful or even against the government and try to block them. Uncategorized
No other country in the world gives protection like that, but it is not absolute protection. People sometimes meet that high burden and win libel suits, and in those cases I think they ought to win. Uncategorized
My role in it was not as central as it was in some of the later cases considering I was younger then and I was playing a role of co-counsel on the case. Uncategorized
It is within the last quarter century or thirty years. And a lot of that law has turned out to be very, very protective of the press and the public's right to know. Uncategorized
It is not to benefit CBS, not to benefit its reporters. On this one, the entire basis of it is this is a way to get more information, more important information to the public. And that's why so many states recognize this. Uncategorized
It has something to do with the facts and the law and who the judges are. So I think lawyers sometimes exaggerate their role in winning and losing. Lawyers do have a role, and a major role, but they're not the only players in this game. Uncategorized
If the word gets out, if the perception exists that by speaking to a CBS journalist you are, therefore, inevitably, immediately speaking to the police, I don't think there's any doubt but that people won't talk. And, therefore, the public won't learn. Uncategorized
I would say that the Pentagon Papers case of 1971 - in which the government tried to block the The New York Times and The Washington Post that they obtained from a secret study of how we got involved in the war in Vietnam - that is probably the most important case. Uncategorized
I try to do that in this book without preaching - to try to do as you just said that you really have to defend the First Amendment rights of everybody. Uncategorized
I think we have some serious problems now, but, if you look back over the last thirty or forty years that my book deals with, I think we are in better shape now than we would have been if all of those cases had not come down. Uncategorized
I think that the very fact that CBS fought and fought and fought in Texas, in New York. Uncategorized
I really try at least to come back and answer the question as to whether that was really the best way to do that and was I really thinking straight and how did my opponents behave and how did the judges behave was needed. Uncategorized
I really did try to write it so that an educated public that cares about issues like this doesn't have to be a lawyer and can read it and understand it. Uncategorized
I mean the idea of this is that it's a good thing for the public to hear interviews like this and that there will be an inevitable amount of fewer interviews if people that the press talks to wind up thinking, well, it's not really a CBS correspondent. Uncategorized