Politics & Power Quote by Hugo Black

Black is doing something slyly radical here: he frames the free press not as a polite civic accessory, but as a sanctioned instrument of exposure. “Protection it must have” isn’t decorative reverence for the First Amendment; it’s a judicial declaration that press freedom only matters when it’s inconvenient to power. The verb choice, “bare,” is almost confrontational. A press that merely repeats official narratives doesn’t need constitutional armor. A press that digs up secrets does.

The intent is both legal and moral. Black, a Supreme Court justice and a First Amendment absolutist, is staking out the premise that democratic consent depends on information that governments would prefer to withhold. He’s also preemptively rejecting the usual escape hatches: national security panic, dignitary harm, the claim that secrecy is simply “how governing works.” In his framing, secrecy is not a neutral administrative tool; it’s a temptation built into власть, and the press is the counterweight the Founders anticipated.

The subtext is a rebuke to officials who wrap themselves in patriotism while trying to control narratives. Black ties press freedom directly to the Founding Fathers to make censorship look not merely illiberal but un-American. This is classic constitutional jujitsu: using reverence for origins to defend disruption.

Context matters. Black’s most famous press statements come from mid-20th-century battles over prior restraint and public criticism of government, when Cold War secrecy and “security” arguments were expanding. His line is a reminder that the First Amendment isn’t designed for calm times; it’s built for the moments when the state insists it can’t be questioned.