It is not to benefit CBS, not to benefit its reporters. On this one, the entire basis of it is this is a way to get more information, more important information to the public. And that's why so many states recognize this.

I really try at least to come back and answer the question as to whether that was really the best way to do that and was I really thinking straight and how did my opponents behave and how did the judges behave was needed... view

By: Floyd Abrams

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Here we have a situation where a defendant in a case agrees to an interview with Dan Rather. It happened to be not confidential. But it was an interview with Dan Rather... view

By: Floyd Abrams

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There are some circumstances in which the First Amendment interest comes up against another interest that is really important and in which we have to make a decision in a particular case as to which is more important... view

By: Floyd Abrams

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I really did try to write it so that an educated public that cares about issues like this doesn't have to be a lawyer and can read it and understand it... view

By: Floyd Abrams

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I just had the sense that at least the books that I had read about law just didn't really have enough of that... view

By: Floyd Abrams

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It's not like learning how to hit a curve ball in baseball... view

By: Floyd Abrams

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So sometimes the facts are good and sometimes the facts are bad, the important thing from the point of view of a principle as broad and important as freedom of speech is that the courts articulate and set forth in a very protective way what those principles are... view

By: Floyd Abrams

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I think we have some serious problems now, but, if you look back over the last thirty or forty years that my book deals with, I think we are in better shape now than we would have been if all of those cases had not come down... view

By: Floyd Abrams

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I am really impressed by lawyers who write books and tell us that they never lost a case. Most lawyers who have never lost a case have not had enough hard cases. But there are very difficult cases out there... view

By: Floyd Abrams

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Were this not Texas, were there not a state where there were no protections at all and where the law was clear on that, I think CBS and Mary Mapes and Dan Rather and all of us had a very good chance of winning. So this is an ongoing battle about an issue of principle... view

By: Floyd Abrams

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I think that the very fact that CBS fought and fought and fought in Texas, in New York... view

By: Floyd Abrams

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It has something to do with the facts and the law and who the judges are. So I think lawyers sometimes exaggerate their role in winning and losing. Lawyers do have a role, and a major role, but they're not the only players in this game... view

By: Floyd Abrams

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