Alan Dershowitz
Alan Dershowitz
Alan Morton Dershowitzis an American lawyer, jurist, and author. He is a prominent scholar on United States constitutional law and criminal law, and a leading defender of civil liberties. He spent most of his career at Harvard Law School where in 1967, at the age of 28, he became the youngest full professor of law in its history. He held the Felix Frankfurter professorship there from 1993 until his retirement in December 2013...
ProfessionLawyer
Date of Birth1 September 1938
CityNew York City, NY
issues freedom-of-speech serious
All speech should be presumed to be protected by the Constitution, and a heavy burden should be placed on those who would censor to demonstrate with relative certainty that the speech at issue, if not censored, would lead to irremediable and immediate serious harm.
country secret freedom-of-speech
We don't have an Official Secrets Act in the United States, as other countries do. Under the First Amendment, freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and freedom of association are more important than protecting secrets.
freedom-of-speech violence should
Being offended by freedom of speech should never be regarded as a justification for violence.
answers speech
The best answer to bad speech is good speech
law freedom-of-speech censorship
Censorship laws are blunt instruments, not sharp scalpels. Once enacted, they are easily misapplied to merely unpopular or only marginally dangerous speech.
freedom-of-speech violence excuse
The threat or fear of violence should not become an excuse or justification for restricting freedom of speech.
lying law freedom-of-speech
The law is agnostic about truth. It's very skeptical of ultimate truth. That's why freedom of speech permits lies to be told.
bet people
I would bet you there weren't more than 20 or 30 people who read it.
gets hard immunity judgment nobody true
Nobody gets immunity from perjury. If he testified falsely, he would be prosecuted. It's hard for me to make a judgment because I don't know what's true and what's false.
answers point questions
We just have no idea what the answers are to those questions at this point in time.
law
We wouldn't even know where to look to find the law because there is no law.
jobs years giving
I'm worried about privacy because of the young people who don't give a damn about their privacy, who are prepared to put their entire private lives online. They put stuff on Facebook that 15 years from now will prevent them from getting the jobs they want. They don't understand that they are mortgaging their future for a quick laugh from a friend.
learning hands firsts
Question authority; but, raise your hand first.
criminals defense roles
I tell my students, if you ever become comfortable with your role as criminal defense lawyer, it's time to quit. It should be a constant source of discomfort, because you're dealing with incredible moral ambiguity, and you've been cast into a role which is not enviable.