New York Times Co. v. United States · ¶118

The First Amendment, after all, is only one part of an entire. Constitution. Article II of the great document vests in the Executive.Branch primary power over the conduct of foreign affairs and places in that branch the responsibility for the Nation’s safety. Each provisionof the Constitution is important, and I cannot subscribe to a doctrine of unlimited absolutism for the First Amendment at the cost of downgrading.other provisions. First Amendment absolutism has never commanded a majority of this Court. See, for example, Near v. Minnesota, 283 U. S. 697, 708 (1931), and Schenck v. United States, 249 U. S. 47, 52 (1919). What is needed here is a weighing, upon properly developed standards, of the broad right of the press to print and of the very narrow right of the Government to prevent. Such standards are not yet developed. The parties here are in disagreement as to what those…

U. S. Reports, bound volume
U. S. Reports, volume 403, at 713 (Library of Congress) · transcription: Caselaw Access Project
Passage preview. Read in context for the complete text, notes and references.