Hegseth Tries Turning Back 94 Years of Press Freedom
The history on his side has been discredited by the Supreme Court for a century.
Pentagon Papers: The smell of victory was printers’ ink.
Source: Bettmann/Getty
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The First Amendment to the US Constitution, which guarantees the freedom of speech and the press, only means that “every man shall be at liberty to publish what is true, with good motives, and for justifiable ends.” So wrote the Supreme Court justice Joseph Story, who argued that without such a limitation, the amendment could become “the scourge of the republic by rendering the most virtuous patriots odious through the terrors of the press, introducing despotism in its worst form.”
The interpretation of Story, who died in 1845, framed American understanding of the freedom of the press for most of the nation’s history. It stayed in place until 1931, when the passages above were cited by the four justices who dissented in the case of Near vs. Minnesota, which established that prior restraints on the press were unconstitutional. Press freedom as currently understood in the US dates back only 94 years.