Alfred M. Knight III was a Nashville-based attorney who specialized in
First Amendment and open government litigation. For much of his career, he
represented The Tennessean.
Archibald Cox is best known for his role as special prosecutor in the
Watergate investigation, but his career also involved a number of First
Amendment issues.
Arthur Hays was founding member of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Although he had many corporate clients, he is best known for defending
First Amendment freedoms.
Arthur Kinoy was a well-known civil liberties attorney, who tirelessly
advocated for liberal causes. He argued a few First Amendment cases before
the Supreme Court.
Clarence Darrow is one of America’s most famous defense attorneys who
sought to protect First Amendment rights. He is best known for his role in
the Scopes monkey trial.
Dan Paul was an attorney best known in First Amendment circles for winning
an important press freedom in Miami Herald Publishing Co. v. Tornillo
(1974).
David A. Cortman is an appellate advocate who has argued several First
Amendment cases before the Supreme Court. He serves as senior counsel with
the Alliance Defending Freedom.
David Rabban is known for his First Amendment work, especially a book that
examined the legal interpretations of free speech during the “forgotten
years” between 1870 to 1920.
David Rein, a civil liberties lawyer, argued a number of cases before the
Supreme Court, several of them dealing with First Amendment issues and
McCarthyism.
Douglas Laycock, a law professor, is one of the nation’s foremost religious
liberty experts. He has argued First Amendment-related cases before the
Supreme Court.
E. Barrett Prettyman Jr. a Washington, D.C., attorney, argued 19 cases
before the Supreme Court. Some involved First Amendment issues, including
freedom of the press.
Ephraim London was an attorney who successfully argued First Amendment
cases before the Supreme Court, including a case that established film as
protected expression.
Evan T. Lawson was a Boston-based attorney who successfully argued two
First Amendment cases before the Supreme Court involving flag misuse and
commercial speech.
H. Louis Sirkin is a Cincinnati-based attorney nationally known for his
First Amendment work, defending of clients in obscenity and adult
entertainment cases.
Hayden C. Covington was one of the most important and least heralded
attorneys on First Amendment issues, especially those related to the free
exercise of religion.
Henry W. Sawyer III was a civil liberties attorney who successfully argued
two of the most important religious liberty First Amendment cases before
the Supreme Court.
James C. Goodale, a prominent First Amendment attorney, is best known for
leading the New York Times in its successful litigation in the Pentagon
Papers case.
Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, is
a leading Supreme Court litigator. He has argued numerous First Amendment
cases before the high court.
John C. Connell is an attorney who specializes in First Amendment law. He
is best known for successfully representing musician Simon Tam pro bono in
Matal v. Tam (2017).
Joseph Forer, a civil liberties attorney, achieved prominence by
challenging the constitutionality of federal laws used to target suspected
members of the Communist Party.
Joseph L. Rauh Jr. was a renowned civil liberties lawyer who argued
numerous cases before the Supreme Court, including at least three that
dealt with First Amendment issues.
Laurence Tribe, a professor at Harvard Law School, is regarded as one of
the preeminent scholars in the field of constitutional law and First
Amendment scholarship.
Civil rights attorney Lawrence Speiser may be the only person who has
successfully represented himself before the Supreme Court in a First
Amendment case.
Lee C. Bollinger, a legal scholar of the First Amendment, is an advocate
for tolerance theory, which argues that broad acceptance for expression
will increase diversity of ideas.
Leo Pfeffer, one of the twentieth century’s most active litigators on
church-state issues, participated in several First Amendment cases before
the U.S. Supreme Court.
Leonard Boudin (1912–1989), a prominent civil liberties attorney, argued
many First Amendment cases before the Supreme Court including cases related
to free speech.
Lloyd Cutler (1917–2005) successfully argued three First Amendment cases
before the Supreme Court including the landmark case Buckley v. Valeo about
campaign contribution limits.
Louis Nizer (1902–1994) was a noted trial lawyer who successfully argued
two First Amendment cases involving film censorship before the Supreme
Court.
Martin Grabus is regarded as one of the top First Amendment
lawyer–litigators in the United States. He has participated in defamation
and intellectual property cases.
Law professor Martin H. Redish is one of the nation’s foremost authorities
on the First Amendment. He argued that commercial speech should have First
Amendment protection.
Melville Bernard Nimmer, an expert in copyright law and freedom of
expression, was a defender of the First Amendment in the Supreme Court case
Cohen v. California (1971).
Melvin L. Wulf is a constitutional lawyer whose special field of practice
is intellectual property. He also has extensive experience in other First
Amendment areas.
Murray Gurfein was best known for his ruling as a district court judge in
the Pentagon Papers case, a clash between national security interests and
First Amendment rights.
Osmond K. Fraenkel was one of the leading civil liberties attorneys of the
20th century. He argued many First Amendment cases before the Supreme Court.
Peter Banta was a New Jersey-based attorney active in First Amendment law.
He represented a litany of leading media entities in his career, including
The New York Times Company.
Robert Carter successfully presented several First Amendment cases to the
Supreme Court related to the Civil Rights movement and freedom of
association and speech.
Robert Corn-Revere is a leading First Amendment attorney who has
represented college students in free speech cases battling censorship on
college campuses.
Roslyn Litman successfully argued before the Supreme Court that religious
displays at a county courthouse violated the establishment clause of the
First Amendment.
Roy Cohn is best known for his work as the chief counsel to Sen. Joseph
McCarthy, whose interrogations of alleged communists had a chilling effect
on First Amendment freedoms.
Stanley Fleishman was a leading First Amendment attorney who appeared
before the Supreme Court to argue several obscenity cases despite the
crippling effects of polio.
Steven H. Swander was a Texas-based First Amendment attorney known for his
passion for free speech. He was the president of the First Amendment
Lawyers Association.
Thomas C. Goldstein has argued more than 15 cases before the high court,
including some First Amendment cases. He also started the Supreme Court of
the United States Blog.
Victor Rabinowitz, an attorney known for his passionate defense of
individual liberties, participated in numerous high-profile First Amendment
cases throughout his legal career.
First Amendment scholar and theorist Vincent Blasi is best known for his
“checking value” theory of the free speech and free press clauses of the
First Amendment.
Walter Pollak was a leading civil rights attorney in the 1920s. He
represented American Communists Benjamin Gitlow and Charlotte Whitney in
First Amendment cases.
William Jennings Bryan’s defense of Christian fundamentalism in the Scopes
monkey trial clashed with the First Amendment’s prohibition of state
sponsorship of religion.
William Kunstler (1919-1995), who won two First Amendment disputes before
the Supreme Court, is perhaps best known for his defense in the Chicago
Seven case.
