ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with First Amendment liberties of speech, press, and religion. It examines the meaning of freedom under the stressful conditions of war. The chapter also examines a constitutional clash between the competing values of freedom and equality. It explores two cases in which the Supreme Court weighed the competing claims of individual rights and national security. The strength of the argument of the reporters lay in their contention that if freedom of the press is to be meaningful, the source of information as well as its uninhibited dissemination must be protected. The weakness of their position was the implication that somehow the press was a privileged group, above the ordinary legal requirement that grand juries are entitled to every person's evidence. The absolutist would have to say that no law still means any law, even though freedom of the press exacts the high price of hundreds of American lives.
