Topics: Lawyers

• Alfred Knight III

  Alfred M. Knight III was a Nashville-based attorney who specialized in First Amendment and open government litigation. For much of his career, he represented...

• Archibald Cox

  Archibald Cox is best known for his role as special prosecutor in the Watergate investigation, but his career also involved a number of First Amendment issues...

• Arthur Hays

  Arthur Hays was founding member of the American Civil Liberties Union. Although he had many corporate clients, he is best known for defending First Amendment...

• Arthur Kinoy

  Arthur Kinoy was a well-known civil liberties attorney, who tirelessly advocated for liberal causes. He argued a few First Amendment cases before the Supreme...

• Bruce Sanford

  Bruce William Sanford is considered one of the country’s leading First Amendment attorneys. He has argued for a federal shield law to protect reporters...

• Clarence Darrow

  Clarence Darrow is one of America’s most famous defense attorneys who sought to protect First Amendment rights. He is best known for his role in the Scopes...

• Dan Paul

  Dan Paul was an attorney best known in First Amendment circles for winning an important press freedom in Miami Herald Publishing Co. v. Tornillo (1974...

• David Cortman

  David A. Cortman is an appellate advocate who has argued several First Amendment cases before the Supreme Court. He serves as senior counsel with the Alliance...

• David Rabban

  David Rabban is known for his First Amendment work, especially a book that examined the legal interpretations of free speech during the "forgotten years"...

• David Rein

  David Rein, a civil liberties lawyer, argued a number of cases before the Supreme Court, several of them dealing with First Amendment issues and McCarthyism...

• Douglas Laycock

  Douglas Laycock, a law professor, is one of the nation’s foremost religious liberty experts. He has argued First Amendment-related cases before the Supreme...

• E. Barrett Prettyman Jr.

  E. Barrett Prettyman Jr. a Washington, D.C., attorney, argued 19 cases before the Supreme Court. Some involved First Amendment issues, including freedom of the...

• Edward De Grazia

  Edward De Grazia was a lawyer who defended creators of expressive works from obscenity and related charges in First Amendment cases before the Supreme Court...

• Ephraim London

  Ephraim London was an attorney who successfully argued First Amendment cases before the Supreme Court, including a case that established film as protected...

• Evan Lawson

  Evan T. Lawson was a Boston-based attorney who successfully argued two First Amendment cases before the Supreme Court involving flag misuse and commercial...

• Floyd Abrams

  Floyd Abrams, a well-known First Amendment lawyer, has argued many famous cases before the Supreme Court, including the landmark Pentagon Papers case...

• H. Louis Sirkin

  H. Louis Sirkin is a Cincinnati-based attorney nationally known for his First Amendment work, defending of clients in obscenity and adult entertainment cases...

• Hayden Covington

  Hayden C. Covington was one of the most important and least heralded attorneys on First Amendment issues, especially those related to the free exercise of...

• Henry Sawyer III

  Henry W. Sawyer III was a civil liberties attorney who successfully argued two of the most important religious liberty First Amendment cases before the Supreme...

• James Goodale

  James C. Goodale, a prominent First Amendment attorney, is best known for leading the New York Times in its successful litigation in the Pentagon Papers case...

• Jay Sekulow

  Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, is a leading Supreme Court litigator. He has argued numerous First Amendment cases...

• John Connell

  John C. Connell is an attorney who specializes in First Amendment law. He is best known for successfully representing musician Simon Tam pro bono in Matal v....

• Joseph Forer

  Joseph Forer, a civil liberties attorney, achieved prominence by challenging the constitutionality of federal laws used to target suspected members of the...

• Joseph Rauh, Jr.

  Joseph L. Rauh Jr. was a renowned civil liberties lawyer who argued numerous cases before the Supreme Court, including at least three that dealt with First...

• Laurence Tribe

  Laurence Tribe, a professor at Harvard Law School, is regarded as one of the preeminent scholars in the field of constitutional law and First Amendment...

• Lawrence Speiser

  Civil rights attorney Lawrence Speiser may be the only person who has successfully represented himself before the Supreme Court in a First Amendment case...

• Lee C. Bollinger

  Lee C. Bollinger, a legal scholar of the First Amendment, is an advocate for tolerance theory, which argues that broad acceptance for expression will increase...

• Leo Pfeffer

  Leo Pfeffer, one of the twentieth century’s most active litigators on church-state issues, participated in several First Amendment cases before the U.S....

• Leonard Boudin

  Leonard Boudin (1912–1989), a prominent civil liberties attorney, argued many First Amendment cases before the Supreme Court including cases related to free...

• Lloyd Cutler

  Lloyd Cutler (1917–2005) successfully argued three First Amendment cases before the Supreme Court including the landmark case Buckley v. Valeo about campaign...

• Louis Nizer

  Louis Nizer (1902–1994) was a noted trial lawyer who successfully argued two First Amendment cases involving film censorship before the Supreme Court...

• Martin Garbus

  Martin Grabus is regarded as one of the top First Amendment lawyer–litigators in the United States. He has participated in defamation and intellectual...

• Martin Redish

  Law professor Martin H. Redish is one of the nation’s foremost authorities on the First Amendment. He argued that commercial speech should have First...

• Melville Nimmer

  Melville Bernard Nimmer, an expert in copyright law and freedom of expression, was a defender of the First Amendment in the Supreme Court case Cohen v....

• Melvin Wulf

  Melvin L. Wulf is a constitutional lawyer whose special field of practice is intellectual property. He also has extensive experience in other First Amendment...

• Murray Gurfein

  Murray Gurfein was best known for his ruling as a district court judge in the Pentagon Papers case, a clash between national security interests and First...

• Osmond Fraenkel

  Osmond K. Fraenkel was one of the leading civil liberties attorneys of the 20th century. He argued many First Amendment cases before the Supreme Court...

• Peter Banta

  Peter Banta was a New Jersey-based attorney active in First Amendment law.  He represented a litany of leading media entities in his career, including The New...

• Robert Carter

  Robert Carter successfully presented several First Amendment cases to the Supreme Court related to the Civil Rights movement and freedom of association and...

• Robert Corn-Revere

  Robert Corn-Revere is a leading First Amendment attorney who has represented college students in free speech cases battling censorship on college campuses...

• Roslyn Litman

  Roslyn Litman successfully argued before the Supreme Court that religious displays at a county courthouse violated the establishment clause of the First...

• Roy Cohn

  Roy Cohn is best known for his work as the chief counsel to Sen. Joseph McCarthy, whose interrogations of alleged communists had a chilling effect on First...

• Stanley Fleishman

  Stanley Fleishman was a leading First Amendment attorney who appeared before the Supreme Court to argue several obscenity cases despite the crippling effects of...

• Steven Swander

  Steven H. Swander was a Texas-based First Amendment attorney known for his passion for free speech. He was the president of the First Amendment Lawyers...

• Thomas Goldstein

  Thomas C. Goldstein has argued more than 15 cases before the high court, including some First Amendment cases. He also started the Supreme Court of the United...

• Victor Rabinowitz

  Victor Rabinowitz, an attorney known for his passionate defense of individual liberties, participated in numerous high-profile First Amendment cases throughout...

• Vincent Blasi

  First Amendment scholar and theorist Vincent Blasi is best known for his “checking value” theory of the free speech and free press clauses of the First...

• Walter Pollak

  Walter Pollak was a leading civil rights attorney in the 1920s. He represented American Communists Benjamin Gitlow and Charlotte Whitney in First Amendment...

• William Jennings Bryan

  William Jennings Bryan's defense of Christian fundamentalism in the Scopes monkey trial clashed with the First Amendment’s prohibition of state sponsorship of...

• William Kunstler

  William Kunstler (1919-1995), who won two First Amendment disputes before the Supreme Court, is perhaps best known for his defense in the Chicago Seven case...