Quotes by Floyd Abrams, page 2

Floyd Abrams - american Lawyer

Was born on 09 jul 1936.

Origin country: United States

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...

Quote by Floyd Abrams about journalism, police, doubt, word, public, people

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.

Quote by Floyd Abrams about judges, games, law

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

Quote by Floyd Abrams about public

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.

Quote by Floyd Abrams about press, law, public, rightness

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...

Quote by Floyd Abrams about nation, people, human imperfections, good, good luck

It's a competing interest that matters.

Quote by Floyd Abrams about interest

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

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.

Quote by Floyd Abrams about moral

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.

Quote by Floyd Abrams about burden, absolute, country, world, people

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...

Quote by Floyd Abrams about principle, bad luck, bad, things, good, good luck

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

Quote by Floyd Abrams about power

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.

Quote by Floyd Abrams about bad luck, respect, thinking, bad

The principle though remains the same, and the important thing is CBS fought hard, very hard, to protect that principle and will fight again.

Quote by Floyd Abrams about principle, fight, things

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?

Quote by Floyd Abrams about question, law, use, end, day

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.

Quote by Floyd Abrams about interest, circumstances

This is going right to the police. So, it's a very dangerous precedent.

Quote by Floyd Abrams about police, rightness

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...

Quote by Floyd Abrams about principle, chance, law, state, good, good luck

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...

Quote by Floyd Abrams about law, press, memory