{"id":525,"date":"2026-08-17T14:13:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T14:13:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanservicereview.com\/?p=525"},"modified":"2026-08-17T14:13:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T14:13:17","slug":"scotus-litigator-floyd-abrams-at-90","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanservicereview.com\/?p=525","title":{"rendered":"SCOTUS litigator Floyd Abrams at 90"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Floyd Abrams\u2019 initials signaled his destiny as a First Amendment lawyer. More than any others, Abrams\u2019 name is synonymous with freedom of speech and the press. Now nine decades into his life journey, I thought it would be good to provide a brief profile of the man. Abrams remains astute, mild-mannered, witty, industrious, and thoroughly dedicated to the Madisonian promise. That resolve has won him both venerated praise, and fierce criticism.<\/p>\n

Read more Who is Justice Barrett?<\/a><\/p>\n

The measure of the man<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I graduated from law school,\u201d New York Times journalist Adam Liptak recently told me, \u201cI wanted to work for\u00a0Floyd Abrams \u2013 and I did, spending four years as an associate at his firm. I also hired him when I was an in-house lawyer, covered his arguments as a journalist, and taught courses with him on the First Amendment at Yale and NYU. It is uncontroversial that Floyd is the greatest defender of press freedom in the history of the American judicial system.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to media lawyer Lee Levine, who has also worked with Abrams, \u201cTime and again over more than half a century, Floyd\u2019s extraordinary skill set \u2013 excellent judgment, elegant prose, deep understanding of constitutional theory, and understated but strikingly effective oral advocacy \u2013 has protected journalists, strengthened their and our First Amendment rights and, above all else, enhanced American democracy.\u00a0He inspired a generation of lawyers, myself included, to join the fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Key tenets of Abrams\u2019 First Amendment philosophy<\/strong><\/p>\n

As a litigator, press counselor, legal scholar, author, and spokesman for free expression, Floyd Abrams has no modern counterpart. Consider his impact on First Amendment law through a few examples, such as in 1976\u2019s Nebraska Press Association v. Stuart<\/em>, a press-gag-order case in a fair-trial context. Appearing on behalf of a variety of publishers, broadcasters, and journalists, Abrams (along with E. Barrett Prettyman, Jr.) helped establish the principle that gag orders directed to the press are presumptively invalid prior restraints. First Amendment scholars Jerome Barron and C. Thomas Dienes concluded that \u201cthe Nebraska Press<\/em> case has to be regarded as a virtual death knell for gag orders by courts against media publications.\u201d<\/p>\n

From front left: Lawrence McKay, Floyd Abrams, Bickel, James Goodale, and William Heggerty. (AP Photo\/Charles Harrity, The Associated Press.)<\/em><\/p>\n

His role in working alongside Alexander Bickel in the Pentagon Papers Case<\/em> represents yet another significant victory regarding prior restraints on the press. As that decision made clear, even when such censorship involves classified information concerning a war, there is a heavy burden of justification required to impose a prior restraint on the press for materials lawfully obtained.<\/p>\n

And then, of course, is Citizens United <\/em>(but more on that below).<\/p>\n

Abrams\u2019 appellate success is also measurable. He has prevailed in 77% of the First Amendment cases he argued before the court.<\/p>\n

The following are some of the key tenets of how Abrams approaches such cases concerning free speech and the press \u2013 as he put it recently to me in an email:<\/p>\n

It\u2019s obviously difficult to set forth themes that would be useful in every case against the press but here are three that I think might more often than not be useful.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n