The Other Sullivan Case
The American philosopher Alexander Meikeljohn famously reacted to the news of the Supreme Court’s decision in Sullivan by saying, “It is an occasion for dancing in the streets.” There is something disturbing and perhaps even vaguely repellent in the image of a giddy throng of philosophers, media lawyers and law professors getting jiggy with it on the boulevards of America over the enunciation of the “actual malice” doctrine. As both a professor and a former newspaper editor I would join that ungainly celebration. Sullivan has been a good thing on balance for free press, free speech and free government. But as a human being, I can’t help but wonder whether Ralph David Abernathy ever felt like joining the dance.
