Journal of Free Speech Law: “The Press Clause: The Forgotten First Amendment,”
The article is here; the Introduction:
From the earliest days of our nation, there was a shared sense that freedom of the press was an essential precondition for life in a newly liberated country. James Madison’s first draft of what ultimately became the First Amendment reflected that sentiment. Introduced to the First Congress on June 8, 1789, it asserted that “[the] people shall not be deprived of their right to speak, to write, or to publish their sentiments; and the freedom of the press, as one of the great bulwarks of liberty, shall be inviolable.”
The proposition that freedom of the press was an inviolable right was repeated in varying but wholly consistent language in the widest range of state constitutions of that time. Typical articulations were those of the Georgia Constitution of 1777 (declaring that the freedom of the press was to “remain inviolate forever”); the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780 (“the liberty of the press is essential to the security of freedom in a state: it ought not, therefore, to be restrained in this Commonwealth”); and the Pennsylvania Constitution of 1790 (“the printing presses shall be free to every person who undertakes to examine the proceedings of the legislature, or any part of government: And no law shall ever be made to restrain the right thereof”).
Ultimately, the language of the First Amendment was redrafted in its current form, with freedom of the press specifically identified as requiring constitutional protection. The American press has, as a result, received broad protections against prior and subsequent restraints developed through twentieth-century jurisprudence. Cases such a
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