ABSTRACT
The High Court's recognition of a constitutionally implied freedom of political discussion marks the end of the reign of the Engineers' Case. The intersection of the themes raised by Theophanous, Stephens and Cun-liffe lies at the Engineers' Case. It is not an exaggeration to say that the case has been the cornerstone of Australian constitutional jurisprudence. A central question addressed by this article is whether that cornerstone still rests in place. The action was brought by six members of the Legislative Council of Western Australia in relation to three articles published in the West Australian newspaper. The joint judgment in Theophanous accepted that a limited implication of freedom of communication had been created by Nationwide News and Australian Capital Television. The Engineers' Case was the most visible symbol of the traditional supposedly nonpolitical approach of the Court. The Communist Party Case is a useful yardstick for measuring how far the High Court has come from the Engineers' Case.
