“The ct is disposed to consider the merits…Wow!”: Anthony Lewis Takes Us Inside the Oral Arguments in NAACP v. Alabama ex rel. Flowers (1964)

Abstract

This Article tells the story of the March 24, 1964 Supreme Court oral arguments in NAACP v. Alabama ex rel. Flowers. The unanimous decision, announced by the Court on June 1, 1964, constitutes a landmark free speech and freedom of assembly ruling. Analysis of the arguments is framed using the notes taken by New York Times Supreme Court correspondent Anthony Lewis. They were arguments which caught even the highly experienced and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist off guard. Using those notes, and other extensive primary research materials (from myriad archival collections, including the papers of Justices Tom Clark and Charles Evans Whittaker), the Article leads the reader through the background to the case, setting the stage for the oral arguments which laid bare the procedural shenanigans that Alabama had engaged in for 8 years.

Keywords: legal theory, legal history, freedom of assembly, due process, oral arguments, freedom of speech, freedom of expression, Supreme Court of the United States, Alabama, civil rights, civil liberties, Warren Court, constitutional law, constitutional theory, New York Times, journalism, jurisprudence