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Judge Hand's Views On The Free Speech Problem, Robert S. Lancaster

Vanderbilt Law Review

Judge Learned Hand has been for many years a lawyer's lawyer. His opinions are liberally sprinkled through the case books; commentaries on legal matters cite his opinions with increasing respect and admiration; but to many people he is the judge who upheld the conviction of the eleven communists in New York on a question involving the limits of free speech. Scholars of parts and even some lawyers do not know that he anticipated the Supreme Court's "clear and present danger" test by two years, or that his contribution to the law of free speech is by no means confined to …