Absolutism and natural law argument: William O. Douglas on freedom of expression

• Raymond S. Rodgers ^[1]
  1. [1] North Carolina State University

     North Carolina State University

     Township of Raleigh, Estados Unidos

     
• Localización: Southern communication journal, ISSN 1041-794X, Vol. 48, nº 1, 1982, págs. 22-37
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Numerous commentators have characterized Justice William O. Douglas as an “absolutist” on the First Amendment, meaning that he gave broad sweep to the kinds of expression enjoying constitutional protection. This essay offers a different, and somewhat more defensible, application of the term. By focusing upon the tenets of Natural Law Philosophy manifest in a sample of Douglas's First Amendment opinions, a rhetorical genre emerges which, indeed, finds its warrant in “absolute canons and immutable philosophies.”