Without a free press there can be no free society. That is axiomatic. However, freedom of the press is not an end in itself but a means to the end of a free society. The scope and nature of the constitutional guarantee of the freedom of the press are to be viewed and applied in that light.
Interpretation
A free press is essential for a free society, serving as a tool to uphold democracy and transparency.
Felix Frankfurter emphasizes that the freedom of the press is crucial for the existence of a free society, suggesting that it is not merely about the press being free for its own sake, but rather as a vital mechanism to foster and protect democratic values. The quote serves as a reminder that the press plays a fundamental role in ensuring accountability and the dissemination of truth within society.
In practice
During a lecture on democracy, one might quote this to highlight the importance of journalistic independence.
Ultimately there can be no freedom for self unless it is vouchsafed for others; there can be no security where there is fear, and a democratic society presupposes confidence and candor in the relations of men with one another and eager collaboration for the larger ends of life instead of the pursuit of petty, selfish or vainglorious aims.
The accretion of dangerous power does not come in a day. It does come, however slowly, from the generative force of unchecked disregard of the restrictions that fence in even the most disinterested assertion of authority.
Democracy is always a beckoning goal, not a safe harbor. For freedom is an unremitting endeavor, never a final achievement.
The words of the Constitution... are so unrestricted by their intrinsic meaning or by their history or by tradition or by prior decisions that they leave the individual Justice free, if indeed they do not compel him, to gather meaning not from reading the Constitution but from reading life.
Litigation is the pursuit of practical ends, not a game of chess.
As a member of this court I am not justified in writing my private notions of policy into the Constitution, no matter how deeply I may cherish them or how mischievous I may deem their disregard.
Memory isn't a theme; it's part of the human condition.
Revolt is the mirror in which greed is forced to see itself.
I have never lived a life so much larger than death. (93)
My dreams, my dreams! What has become of their sweetness? What indeed has become of my youth?
We can have wilderness without freedom; we can have wilderness without human life at all, but we cannot have freedom without wilderness, we cannot have freedom without leagues of open space beyond the cities, where boys and girls, men and women, can live at least part of their lives under no control but their own desires and abilities, free from any and all direct administration by their fellow men.
Earthlings are the great explainers, explaining why this event is structured as it is, telling how other events may be achieved or avoided.
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