On May 1, 2008, the Chicago Lawyer Chapter of the American Constitution Society For Law & Policy, the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom and the McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum welcomed two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Anthony Lewis for an immensely enjoyable evening’s discussion on the 1st Amendment.

Mr. Lewis is one of the country’s most esteemed experts on the First Amendment and the author of the classic Gideon’s Trumpet. He came to share his latest work, Freedom for the Thought That We Hate: A Biography of the First Amendment, which traces the First Amendment from its early origins and engages such contemporary issues as hate speech and journalists' claim of a right to conceal confidential sources.

His biography includes:

1969-2001 Columnist for the New York Times op-ed page, including covering the U.S. Supreme Court.

Since the mid 1970’s Lewis has taught at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.

Since 1983 he has been the James Madison Visiting Professor at Columbia University.

From 1974 to 1989, he has lectured at Harvard University and has been a visiting lecturer at several other colleges and universities, including the Universities of Arizona, California, Illinois, and Oregon.

His previous three books are Gideon’s Trumpet, which sold nearly a million copies in over forty years in print; Portrait of a Decade; and Make No Law: The Sullivan Case and the First Amendment.

From the beginning of his comments, it was obvious that Mr. Lewis is quite knowledgeable as well as passionate about the 1st Amendment. Needing to refer only once to his book to make sure he accurately quoted Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Mr. Lewis took sheer delight in telling stories to a packed house at the Chicago Tribune Freedom Museum about the individual litigants whose cases formed the basis of how the 1st Amendment evolved from a seeming “dormant” state, as moderator Gretchen Helfrich put it, to one whose judicial enforcement is now almost taken for granted.

Hearing Mr. Lewis discuss his meetings with former Supreme Court justices, his grasp of key facts involved in 1st amendment cases involving freedom of speech and press, and his appreciation of the language used by eloquent Supreme Court justices brought to life a subject matter usually only enjoyed by academics.

To see Chicago Daily Law Bulletin article click here.