How Free Can the Press Be?

Randall P. Bezanson explores the contradictions embedded in understanding press freedom in America by discussing nine of the most pivotal and provocative First Amendment cases in US judicial history. Each case resulted in a ruling that refined or reshaped judicial definition of the limits of press freedom.

The cases concerned matters ranging from The New York Times's publication of the Pentagon Papers to Hugo Zacchini's claim that TV broadcasts of his human cannonball act threatened his liv...