I thought that one of the things that we were losing sight of is the basic reasons that we do protect free speech and freedom of the press and the essentiality and centrality in our lives of really giving broad protection to freedom of speech and freedom of the press in America. I thought I could do that by telling stories of some of the cases that established those principles on a real life on the ground basis.

Floyd Abrams

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More Quotes From Floyd Abrams

It just seems to be a human trait to want to protect the speech of people with whom we agree. For the First Amendment, that is not good enough. So it is really important that we protect First Amendment rights of people no matter what side of the line they are on.

Floyd Abrams
not-good-enough rights people
I think that the very fact that CBS fought and fought and fought... by Floyd Abrams

I think that the very fact that CBS fought and fought and fought in Texas, in New York.

Floyd Abrams
texas new-york thinking

So sometimes the facts are good and sometimes the facts are bad, the important thing from the point of view of a principle as broad and important as freedom of speech is that the courts articulate and set forth in a very protective way what those principles are.

Floyd Abrams
freedom-of-speech important views

The government understands - every government, every administration, both parties, understands - that that power, they just don't have.

Floyd Abrams
administration party government

I really do think that if we had lost that case we would really live in a country that would be really quite different.

Floyd Abrams
different country thinking

I really believe that a lawyer - no matter how good - if he or she is really worth their weight in salt, they will lose some cases because, after all, it is not really one of those secretive things that not everything is decided by who your lawyer is.

Floyd Abrams
salt matter believe

I can tell you, having been in court today in New York, that the requests for the video outtakes have been dropped.

Floyd Abrams
video new-york today

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.

Floyd Abrams
lasts law years

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.

Floyd Abrams
police people thinking

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' and other newspapers from publishing papers that they obtained from a secret study of how we got involved in the war in Vietnam - that is probably the most important case.

Floyd Abrams
block new-york war

I still owe a duty of loyalty to my clients and former clients, so I cannot specify which clients I did not especially find congenial, but the cause was the same.

Floyd Abrams
clients causes loyalty

I just had the sense that at least the books that I had read about law just didn't really have enough of that.

Floyd Abrams
enough law book

I am really impressed by lawyers who write books and tell us that they never lost a case. Most lawyers who have never lost a case have not had enough hard cases. But there are very difficult cases out there.

Floyd Abrams
had-enough writing book

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.

Floyd Abrams
block government trying

That doesn't necessarily mean that the story isn't true, ... But what it does mean, then, is that at this moment we simply do not have enough evidence, in my view, for any conclusion to be reached - that the presidents have been lying to us for all these years and that what we've been told was just a pack of lies.

Floyd Abrams
views mean lying
It's not like learning how to hit a curve ball in baseball. by Floyd Abrams

It's not like learning how to hit a curve ball in baseball.

Floyd Abrams
curves balls baseball

I think Supreme Court's Supreme Court, i can understand CNN being reluctant to sue because the president keeps saying CNN is the enemy of me, and CNN might have reluctance to have a lawsuit titled' CNN vs. Donald Trump.' That said, yes, I think they should sue.

Floyd Abrams
top-news

This is going to happen again, it's likely to happen again. So whether it's CNN suing or the next company suing, someone is going to have to bring a lawsuit. And whoever does is going to win unless there's some sort of reason.

Floyd Abrams
top-news

We cannot predict today which publication will so inflame the president that he would seek to block publication of news, if he could, but we can expect that that day will occur. When it does, the Pentagon Papers case will stand as a powerful barrier against any effort to suppress publication.

Floyd Abrams
top-news

I think that it is important for people to understand that whether a good-guy or a bad-guy wins a case is less important than what the law is that the case results in.

Floyd Abrams
understand think law people