New York Times v. Sullivan: List 2

On March 29, 1960, The New York Times ran an ad to defend Martin Luther King Jr. from an Alabama perjury indictment. To solicit funds, the ad included details of police actions against participants in a civil rights demonstration. In response, Montgomery Commissioner L.B. Sullivan filed a libel suit. The Supreme Court ruled that, unless the public figure can prove actual malice, the First Amendment protects the freedom of the press. The unanimous opinion was written by Justice William Brennan. Read the full text here.

This list covers vocabulary in paragraphs 23-36 of the opinion.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. responsive
    readily reacting or replying to people or events or stimuli
    The maintenance of the opportunity for free political discussion to the end that government may be responsive to the will of the people and that changes may be obtained by lawful means, an opportunity essential to the security of the Republic, is a fundamental principle of our constitutional system.
  2. eschew
    avoid and stay away from deliberately
    Believing in the power of reason as applied through public discussion, they eschewed silence coerced by law—the argument of force in its worst form.
  3. tyranny
    dominance through threat of punishment and violence
    Recognizing the occasional tyrannies of governing majorities, they amended the Constitution so that free speech and assembly should be guaranteed.
  4. caustic
    harsh or corrosive in tone
    Thus, we consider this case against the background of a profound national commitment to the principle that debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open, and that it may well include vehement, caustic, and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks on government and public officials.
  5. exaggeration
    the act of making something more noticeable than usual
    To persuade others to his own point of view, the pleader, as we know, at times resorts to exaggeration, to vilification of men who have been, or are, prominent in church or state, and even to false statement.
  6. vilification
    slanderous defamation
    To persuade others to his own point of view, the pleader, as we know, at times resorts to exaggeration, to vilification of men who have been, or are, prominent in church or state, and even to false statement.
  7. enlightened
    having knowledge and spiritual insight
    But the people of this nation have ordained, in the light of history, that, in spite of the probability of excesses and abuses, these liberties are, in the long view, essential to enlightened opinion and right conduct on the part of the citizens of a democracy.
  8. obsolete
    no longer in use
    Cases which impose liability for erroneous reports of the political conduct of officials reflect the obsolete doctrine that the governed must not criticize their governors.
  9. inevitable
    incapable of being avoided or prevented
    Errors of fact, particularly in regard to a man's mental states and processes, are inevitable.
  10. defamatory
    harmful and often untrue; tending to discredit or malign
    If neither factual error nor defamatory content suffices to remove the constitutional shield from criticism of official conduct, the combination of the two elements is no less inadequate.
  11. advert
    make reference to
    If we advert to the nature of Republican Government, we shall find that the censorial power is in the people over the Government, and not in the Government over the people.
  12. remit
    release from (claims, debts, or taxes)
    Jefferson, as President, pardoned those who had been convicted and sentenced under the Act and remitted their fines, stating:
  13. sedition
    an illegal action inciting resistance to lawful authority
    I discharged every person under punishment or prosecution under the sedition law because I considered, and now consider, that law to be a nullity, as absolute and as palpable as if Congress had ordered us to fall down and worship a golden image.
  14. turpitude
    a corrupt or depraved or degenerate act or practice
    Alabama, for example, has a criminal libel law which subjects to prosecution "any person who speaks, writes, or prints of and concerning another any accusation falsely and maliciously importing the commission by such person of a felony, or any other indictable offense involving moral turpitude," and which allows as punishment upon conviction a fine not exceeding $500 and a prison sentence of six months.
  15. pall
    a sudden feeling of dread or gloominess
    Whether or not a newspaper can survive a succession of such judgments, the pall of fear and timidity imposed upon those who would give voice to public criticism is an atmosphere in which the First Amendment freedoms cannot survive.
Created on Wed Jun 04 12:42:08 EDT 2025 (updated Wed Jun 04 14:17:53 EDT 2025)

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