I had this good buddy in law school who used to sweat garlic. Not actual garlic, unfortunately, but some kind of remnant of his homemade salad dressing and now all of us know more about that than we ...

Welcome to the finale of our series. We’ve reached the modern era and, Bubba, things are bleak.

Man, it was beautiful when it worked. Even when it was underfunded and imperfect, when it worked, it made our communities better.

The Muckrakers demonstrated the inevitability of a free press by sticking a finger in the eye of power even before Sullivan protected it.

Wherein you can be charged with sedition for voicing a political opinion. Or just joking about John Adams’s copious ass.

Wherein Congress gives an Executive power over immigration and freedom of expression before an important election.

It’s 1787 and modern air conditioning won’t be invented for another 115 years, so August in Philadelphia is probably hot as shit.

Andrew Hamilton was a Philadelphia lawyer with a severe case of gout, which is relevant only because that shit can make you ornery, and I think it did.

You aren’t a victim of lawfare just because someone sues you.

That’s right. There was no Constitution, no American Democracy, and George Washington still had his wooden baby teeth.

That’s right. There was no Constitution, no American Democracy, and George Washington still had his wooden baby teeth.

There isn't much that is more antithetical to the notion of free speech than a person in authority using that authority to attempt to silence people who write unflattering things about them.

Those are the things that hit at our souls, and they are the reasons we care about the things that hit at our wallets.

Those are the things that hit at our souls, and they are the reasons we care about the things that hit at our wallets.

I bet neither of us really planned to be here right now. In January 2001, I walked into a newsroom for the first time as a real, live newspaper reporter[^1]. In December 2005, I walked out of that sa...

I bet neither of us really planned to be here right now. In January 2001, I walked into a newsroom for the first time as a real, live newspaper reporter[^1]. In December 2005, I walked out of that sa...

You know how sometimes you find yourself on a dog sled and end up driving?