Collard v. Smith Newspapers, Inc.

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

GOODWIN, District Judge.

Throughout most of this century, the dominant metaphor used to justify freedom of speech and of the press has been the “marketplace of ideas.” Originally enunciated by John Milton and John Stuart Mill, the “marketplace” metaphor came to the forefront of First Amendment jurisprudence in Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes’s dissenting opinion in Abrams v. United States, 250 U.S. 616, 40 S.Ct. 17, 63 L.Ed. 1173 (1919). Writing for himself and Justice Brandéis, Justice Holmes stated: “[T]he best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself…