This sequel to the best-selling May It Please the Court focuses on key First Amendment cases illustrating the most controversial debates over issues of free speech, freedom of the press, and the right to assemble, including: Barnes v. Glen Theater (nude dancing), New York Times v. United States (the "Pentagon Papers" case), Texas v. Johnson (American flag burning), Brandenburg v. Ohio (hate speech by Klansmen) and Hustler Magazine, Inc. v. Falwell ("emotional distress" for parody advertisement).This paperback book includes transcriptions of oral arguments made before the Supreme Court, twelve of which have never been published. They offer an unrivaled view of the Supreme Court in action that will interest anyone wanting first-hand exposure to American law and history.
Peter H. Irons is emeritus professor of political science at the University of California, San Diego. He is the author of numerous books on the Supreme Court and constitutional litigation, includingJim Crow’s Children: The Broken Promise of the Brown Decision and A People’s History of the Supreme Court. He is a co-editor ofMay It Please the Court: The Most Significant Oral Arguments Made Before the Supreme Court Since 1955 (with Stephanie Guitton),May It Please the Court: The First Amendment: Live Recordings and Transcripts of the Oral Arguments Made Before the Supreme Court in Sixteen Key First Amendment Cases, andMay It Please the Court: Courts, Kids, and the Constitution: Live Recordings and Transcripts of Sixteen Supreme Court Oral Arguments on the Constitutional Rights of Students and Teachers, all published by The New Press. He has also contributed to numerous law reviews and other journals. He was chosen in 1988 as the first Raoul Wallenberg Distinguished Visiting Professor of Human Rights at Rutgers University. He has been invited to lecture on constitutional law and civil liberties at the law schools of Harvard, Yale, Berkeley, and Stanford and at more than twenty other schools. In addition to his academic work, Irons has been active in public affairs. He is a practicing civil rights and liberties attorney and was lead counsel in the 1980s in the successful effort to reverse the World War II criminal convictions of Japanese Americans who had challenged the curfew and relocation orders. He was also elected to two terms on the national board of the American Civil Liberties Union.