Speaking Our Minds: Conversations with the People Behind Landmark First Amendment Cases / the First Amendment and the Media in the Court of Public Opinion

* Russomanno, Joseph (2002). Speaking Our Minds: Conversations with the People Behind Landmark First Amendment Cases. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers, pp. 476 * Yalof, David A. and Dautrich, Kenneth (2002). The First Amendment and the Media in the Court of Public Opinion. Cambridge; The Cambridge University Press, pp. 155 Among the freedoms most cherished in the United States are those guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution. As such, the freedoms to speak and publish are highly valued in maintaining democratic ideals. Protection of those fundamental liberties, therefore, remains at the forefront of American public policy. Two recent books in this area contribute to our knowledge of the First Amendment by examining some of the freedoms embodied in it through the eyes of key stakeholders-those who pursue violations to some of the highest courts and members of the general public who responded to surveys about their interpretation of the First Amendment. Speaking Our Minds: Conversations with the People Behind Landmark First Amendment Cases sets out to review ten landmark cases-one per chapter-through the voices of some of the major participants. This is not a traditional law casebook, although case excerpts of major judicial rulings appear at the end of each chapter. Rather, it is a compilation of the stories of citizens, professional communicators and lawyers told in their own words. In their own way, these noteworthy speech advocates used the courage of their convictions to bring important First Amendment cases to some of the highest courts in the federal judiciary. The author, journalism professor Joseph Russomanno, conducted extensive-and in some cases exhaustive-interviews with some of the parties and participants, several of whom are household names in the media or First Amendment bar-Sam Donaldson (ABC News), Larry Flynt (Hustlermagazine), and media lawyers Walter Isaacman and Floyd Abrams. Interspersed between the interviews with these important players are summaries of court proceedings, pronouncements and explanatory notes. These aid the readers' understanding of the sequence of events, provide helpful annotations, and assist in moving the stories along. Each chapter begins with the background of a significant case, although the cases' landmark status is debatable in a couple of instances. Each chapter ends with a heavily edited version of the federal circuit or Supreme Court decision that was discussed in depth by the parties and their attorneys. A question/answer format is used quite effectively here both to interview the subjects about their involvement and as a presentation tool. Many of the interviewees appeared to give candid responses to various direct questions by the author. The questions delved into key aspects of the cases-from how and why they got involved to their interpretations of the effects of the courts' ultimate rulings. Their replies may seem somewhat predictable for those who are familiar with the selected cases. But that does not detract from the usefulness of the cases as teaching tools. Cover to cover, this collection offers great benefits for communication law teachers by unlocking the true nature of protecting free expression and venturing behind the scenes of the appellate judicial process. Interviewees' responses are rich with anecdotes about their thrilling victories and agonizing defeats, bringing to the fore their contemporaneous emotions, hopes, concerns and fears. At times, the interview format enlivens the manuscript by recalling approaches and strategies used and the flavor of the times in which these cases were decided. Noticeably absent from several of the case studies, however, were voices opposing free expression rights. When properly used, that perspective adds significant depth to the case studies. Each chapter makes a different kind of contribution for readers. For example, Tinker v. Des Moines Iowa School District gives a sense of what it was like to take the unpopular action of wearing black armbands in the 1960s in support of a truce in the Vietnam War. …