Politics & Power Quote by Floyd Abrams

The shock in Abrams's line isn not nostalgia; it is a warning disguised as a history lesson. He is puncturing a comforting myth Americans tell themselves: that press freedom is an ancient, settled inheritance, safely embedded in the constitutional bedrock. Abrams, a lawyer who helped shape modern press doctrine, knows how new the "rules" actually are. The First Amendment was ink on parchment for centuries before courts built the case law that gives it operational muscle. His surprise is strategic: it forces the listener to feel how contingent these protections are.

The subtext is generational and institutional. "Within living memory" reframes the First Amendment not as sacred scripture but as a relatively recent construction project, assembled through bruising fights over libel, prior restraint, national security, and public protest. Abrams is also quietly reminding us who built it: litigators, editors, judges, and, often, defendants willing to risk ruin. That matters because what was constructed can be altered. If the doctrine is young, it is also less culturally entrenched than people assume.

Context does the rest. Abrams came of age in the postwar era when the Supreme Court aggressively expanded speech and press protections, producing landmark decisions that now feel like they have always been there. His intent is to pull the audience out of complacency: the "freedom of the press" Americans celebrate is not merely the First Amendment's promise, but the product of modern jurisprudence and modern political pressure. Treat it like a fossil and it becomes one.