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Floyd Abrams

Floyd Abrams Quotes

Attorney

Floyd Abrams is a renowned American lawyer known for his contributions to the field of First Amendment law. Born on July 9, 1936, he has represented many prominent publishers and news organizations in defense of freedom of speech and the press throughout his career.

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All Cases Enough Court Government Ifs Important New York Thinking Block Book

Famous Floyd Abrams Quotes

“I can tell you, having been in court today in New York, that the requests for the video outtakes have been dropped.”

Has Beens I Can Today New York Court Video Request

Author:Floyd Abrams

“I really believe that a lawyer - no matter how good - if he or she is really worth their weight in salt, they will lose some cases because, after all, it is not really one of those secretive things that not everything is decided by who your lawyer is.”

Ifs Believe Matter Loses Cases Decided Weight Lawyer Salt Secretive

Author:Floyd Abrams

“I really do think that if we had lost that case we would really live in a country that would be really quite different.”

Ifs Thinking Different Country Would Be Lost Cases

Author:Floyd Abrams

“I thought that one of the things that we were losing sight of is the basic reasons that we do protect free speech and freedom of the press and the essentiality and centrality in our lives of really giving broad protection to freedom of speech and freedom of the press in America. I thought I could do that by telling stories of some of the cases that established those principles on a real life on the ground basis.”

Real Stories Principles Cases Bases Real Life Telling Stories

Author:Floyd Abrams

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

Government Party Administration

Author:Floyd Abrams

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

Baseball Balls Curves

Author:Floyd Abrams

“That doesn't necessarily mean that the story isn't true, ... But what it does mean, then, is that at this moment we simply do not have enough evidence, in my view, for any conclusion to be reached - that the presidents have been lying to us for all these years and that what we've been told was just a pack of lies.”

Years Mean Doe Has Beens Enough Moments Stories Lying President Views Evidence Conclusion Deceit Packs

Author:Floyd Abrams

“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 line they are on.”

“I think that the very fact that CBS fought and fought and fought in Texas, in New York.”

Thinking Facts New York Texas

Author:Floyd Abrams

“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.”

Trying Government Would Be Able Pieces Court Newspapers Block Articles

Author:Floyd Abrams

“I am really impressed by lawyers who write books and tell us that they never lost a case. Most lawyers who have never lost a case have not had enough hard cases. But there are very difficult cases out there.”

Writing Book Hard Enough Lost Difficult Cases Lawyer Impressed Had Enough

Author:Floyd Abrams

“I just had the sense that at least the books that I had read about law just didn't really have enough of that.”

Book Enough Law

Author:Floyd Abrams

“I still owe a duty of loyalty to my clients and former clients, so I cannot specify which clients I did not especially find congenial, but the cause was the same.”

Stills Causes Duty Loyalty Former Clients

Author:Floyd Abrams

“I would say that the Pentagon Papers case of 1971 - in which the government tried to block the 'The New York Times' and 'The Washington Post' and other newspapers from publishing papers that they obtained from a secret study of how we got involved in the war in Vietnam - that is probably the most important case.”

Important War Government Secret Cases Study New York Involved Paper Block Posts Vietnam Papers New York Times Pentagon

Author:Floyd Abrams

“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 learn.”

People Ifs Thinking Doubt Perception Police Journalist

Author:Floyd Abrams

“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.”

Knows Years Lasts Law Century Presses Thirty Quarters Protective Thirty Years

Author:Floyd Abrams

“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 principles are.”

Way Important Sometimes Facts Views Principles Speech Important Things Court Point Of View Broads Freedom Of Speech Protective

Author:Floyd Abrams

About the Author

Born: July 9, 1936
Known for: Attorney
Quotes: 17

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