Friend of the court : on the front lines with the First Amendment /

As Abrams reminds readers at the beginning of this outstanding volume, "The world of law, including First Amendment law, begins with a client with a problem and a lawyer who represents that client." Abrams has brought together speeches, editorials, short articles, and interviews covering four decades of his work as one of the nation's foremost free speech litigators. Where necessary, he provides invaluable footnotes informing the reader of subsequent legal developments. The result is a highly accessible, page-turning collection that demonstrates that ultimately the most important client passionately defended across the years by Abrams is the expressive freedom clause of the First Amendment. Indeed, an important theme of this volume is that this provision has continuously needed defending from attacks by liberals and conservatives alike. The readers for whom this volume will be useful and informative will be as diverse as the myriad audiences for whom the original materials were intended. Summing Up: Essential. All readership levels. H. J. Knowles Skidmore College

In his long career, Abrams has been involved in most of the major cases challenging and defining free speech, from the Pentagon Papers to Citizens United to WikiLeaks. In this highly accessible collection of speeches, letters, testimony, and public debate, Abrams explores the landscape of free-speech issues in the U.S. during the past 50 years. He argues that free speech is not an ideological concept, noting its use by liberals to defend organized labor and civil rights and antiwar protestors and by conservatives to defend antiabortion protestors and corporate support for political candidates. Abrams devotes sections to press freedom, libel and privacy issues, international perspectives, national security, copyright laws in the Internet age, and free-speech conflicts in various presidential administrations, including those of Roosevelt, Reagan, Clinton, and George W. Bush. Devoting an entire section to the Citizens United case, Abrams addresses criticism of his position in support of corporate free speech. In his final chapter, he reflects on complex free-speech issues that defy political ideology.--Bush, Vanessa Copyright 2010 Booklist

Vigorous, principled defenses of freedom of expression from a long career in the legal trenches. Eminent attorney Abrams (Speaking Freely: Trials of the First Amendment, 2005) aptly describes this book as "a potpourri of my published and unpublished speeches, public debates, testimony, reviews, letters and the like about the First Amendment," though of the six freedoms guaranteed there, he covers only freedom of speech and of the press. The author has been litigating these issues at the highest levels for over 40 years; he was part of the team that argued the "Pentagon Papers" case, as he often reminds us. The various pieces, which go back as far as 1978, are arranged topically and include consideration of such issues as dangers to national security, libel, copyright and the protection of reporters' sources. Most were written for general readership, and Abrams presents his views in clear language. Unfortunately, the format ensures that much material will be repetitious, with the same cases and quotations frequently reappearing. The author often presents himself as something of a First Amendment absolutist, so his arguments have the advantage of clarity with only a dash of nuance. He wholeheartedly accepts the proposition that, outside of clearly recognized, exceptional categories, our government is generally foreclosed from preventing or punishing speech, however dishonest, dangerous or obnoxious. As any skilled attorney's presentation will, Abrams' positions can appear self-evident in the absence of rebuttal from the other side. Indeed, the most interesting pieces are those few in which the opposition is heard directly, as in a discussion on pornography, or where the opposing position is well-known, as in Abrams' ringing defense of the widely reviled Citizens United opinion. While the legal principles presented remain sound, the commentary on controversies that were topical in the 1980s and '90s too often sounds dated and suggests that Abrams is largely serving warmed-over material from an illustrious past.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.