Books
Freedom, Virtue and the First Amendment
– The Louisiana State University Press, 1957; reprinted, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1969.This book examines the First Amendment and issues of liberty and the American Founding. Table of Contents Preface Acknowledgments I Censorship: A Classic Issue… More
Book Review: Freedom, Virtue and the First Amendment
– Rene de Visme Williamson, Louisiana Law Review 18:2 (February 1958).Excerpt: In an age when conflicting ideologies are competing for the support of mankind and when constitutional issues regarding civil liberties are dividing the American people in opposing… More
Liberty, Justice, and the Constitution
– Marshall Smelser, The Review of Politics 20:2 (April 1958), 270–72.The Case of the Censored Librarian
– The American Foundation for Continuing Education, 1959.School Prayers and “Religious Warfare”
– National Review, April 23, 1963, 315–17.Freedom of the Press and the Alien and Sedition Laws: A Reappraisal
– Supreme Court Review 109 (1970).Beyond the (Garbage) Pale, or Democracy, Censorship and the Arts
– Censorship and Freedom of Expression: Essays on Obscenity and the Law, Harry M. Clor, ed. (Skokie, IL: Rand McNally & Company, 1971); reprinted in Walter Berns, In Defense of Liberal Democracy (Regnery Gateway, 1984).Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
– American Political Thought, Morton J. Frisch and Richard G. Stevens, eds. (1971, 1983).Pornography Vs. Democracy: The Case for Censorship
– Public Interest 22 (Winter 1971), 3–24.Excerpt: The case against censorship is very old and very familiar. Almost anyone can formulate it without difficulty. One has merely to set the venerable Milton‘s Areopagitica in… More
Free Speech and Free Government
– The Political Science Reviewer 2:1 (Fall 1972).Excerpt: It is unfortunate, and a measure of our contemporary difficulties, that too many Americans today would hesitate to agree with Gladstone that the American Constitution was… More
The Constitution and a Responsible Press
– The Mass Media and Modern Democracy, Harry M. Clor, ed. (Skokie, IL: Rand McNally, 1974).The First Amendment and the Future of American Democracy
– Basic Books, 1976; reprinted, Regnery Gateway, 1985.A sharp, in-depth analysis of the First Amendment offering a unique interpretation of our basic freedoms and liberties.
Book Review: The First Amendment and the Future of American Democracy
– Jeremy A. Rabkin, American Spectator (March 1977).Excerpt: In the late 1930s, the Supreme Court largely abandoned its traditional defense of property rights and also gave up its long struggle to maintain a balance in the federal system by… More
The First Amendment and the Future of American Democracy
– William J. Bennett, Commentary (May 1977).Abstract: The recent First Amendment decisions of the Supreme Court have met with criticism both from those who think the Court has gone too far and from those who think it has not gone far… More
The Role of the Court
– William J. Bennett, Commentary, May 1977.Excerpt: The recent First Amendment decisions of the Supreme Court have met with criticism both from those who think the Court has gone too far and from those who think it has not gone far… More
Walter Berns: Philosopher of the First Amendment
– William A. Stanmeyer, Modern Age (December 1977), 367–76.Free Speech and the Corporation
– National Legal Center for the Public Interest, 1979.Liberal Censorship
– Public Interest 65 (Fall 1981), 146–49.Excerpt: One would have thought that the censorship issue had been settled in the liberal societies of the West. In theory pornography may be proscribed by the law-in the United States, for… More
No One Blushes Anymore
– George Will, Washington Post, September 15, 1985.Excerpt: Walter Berns, the political philosopher, asks: What if, contrary to Freud and much conventional wisdom, shame is natural to man and shamelessness is acquired? If so, the… More
Pornography, Women, Censorship and Morality
– Law in Context 7:1 (1989).Flag-Burning & Other Modes of Expression
– Commentary, October 1989; reprinted in Democracy and the Constitution: Landmarks of Contemporary Political Thought (AEI Press, 2006).Excerpt: This summer, Washington was given patriotism and obscenity to deal with when the Supreme Court upheld the burning of the flag by an angry Gregory Johnson and when an embarrassed… More
Liberal Democracy and Justice in the Constitution of Walter Berns
– Richard G. Stevens, The Political Science Reviewer 22 (1993).Excerpt: Walter Berns admits in the preface to his book by that very title that he had all along been writing in defense of liberal democracy. This is not simply a post litem motam… More
Leaving Town Alive
– Commentary, August 1993.Excerpt: John Frohnmayer had two purposes in mind when he set out to write this book: he wanted to get even with all the enemies (or perceived enemies) he had made during the two-and-a-… More
Learning to Live with Sex and Violence
– National Review, November 1, 1993.Excerpt: Many years ago, at a supper club in Chicago, I asked a waiter (decked out, as I recall, like some character from the Arabian Nights) why they served their steaks on flaming… More
When Men Are the Prey of Women
– Washington Times, October 25, 1994.Excerpt: In 1971, the Supreme Court told us that “one man’s vulgarity is another’s lyric,” but nowadays a man’s vulgarity is more likely to be seen as sexual… More
Dirty Words
– Public Interest 114 (Winter 1994), 119–25.Excerpt: The world has never had a good definition of liberty, and the American people, just now, are much in need of one.” What Abraham Lincoln said in 1864 about liberty in general can… More
Blue Movies
– Public Interest 119 (Summer 1995), 86–90; reprinted in Democracy and the Constitution: Landmarks of Contemporary Political Thought (AEI Press, 2006).Excerpt: Hollywood Censored, we are told on the book’s dust jacket, examines how hundreds of films–Mae West comedies, serious dramas, and films with a social… More
Taking Virtue Seriously
– Public Interest 128 (Summer 1997), 122–26.Excerpt: In 1790-91, Supreme Court Justice James Wilson delivered a series of lectures on the law at what was to become the University of Pennsylvania and before an audience that included… More
Is There a Worldwide Conservative Crackup?
– Weekly Standard, August 25, 1997.Excerpt: Ask a conservative what he wants to conserve and he is likely to say ” freedom,” including the freedom to spend his own money; hence, his dislike of taxes. But ask the… More
The Clear and Present Danger Test
– Journal of Supreme Court History 25:2 (July 2000).From the Ashes Comes the Rebirth of Patriotism
– AEI Online, October 1, 2001.Excerpt: The terrorist attacks of September 11 have inspired a greater outpouring of patriotism by the American people than have many previous wars, and numerous displays of the American… More
Sticks and Stones?
– Commentary, June 2005.Excerpt: In 1925, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said, and in some circles became famous for saying, “if, in the long run, the beliefs expressed in proletarian dictatorship are destined to… More
Under God
– In Democracy and the Constitution: Landmarks of Contemporary Political Thought (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 2006).Excerpt: On March 24, 2004, the Supreme Court heard arguments in still another of what civil libertarians insist on calling establishment-of-religion cases, Elk Grove Unified School… More
Walter Berns’ Constitution by Christopher DeMuth
– Remarks by Christopher DeMuth at a Constitution Day seminar in honor of Walter Berns, hosted by the American Enterprise Institute, September 20, 2011.Excerpt: In America today, the Constitution has come to mean constitutional law. Most Americans venerate their Constitution and realize that it is an important source of their liberties and… More
Walter Berns, Teacher and Patriot by Leon Kass
– Leon R. Kass, The American, September 27, 2011.Excerpt: It is absolutely fitting and proper to honor Walter Berns in connection with Constitution Day. The U.S. Constitution, and the underlying ideas and ideals of… More
Berns on Free Speech
– Bradley C. S. Watson, remarks from Claremont Institute APSA roundtable, September 2015.Excerpt: Like few others, Walter Berns made it his life’s work to remind us of the reciprocal relationship between rights and duties, individualism and the common good, civil liberties… More
Essays
Freedom, Virtue and the First Amendment
– The Louisiana State University Press, 1957; reprinted, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1969.This book examines the First Amendment and issues of liberty and the American Founding. Table of Contents Preface Acknowledgments I Censorship: A Classic Issue… More
Book Review: Freedom, Virtue and the First Amendment
– Rene de Visme Williamson, Louisiana Law Review 18:2 (February 1958).Excerpt: In an age when conflicting ideologies are competing for the support of mankind and when constitutional issues regarding civil liberties are dividing the American people in opposing… More
Liberty, Justice, and the Constitution
– Marshall Smelser, The Review of Politics 20:2 (April 1958), 270–72.The Case of the Censored Librarian
– The American Foundation for Continuing Education, 1959.School Prayers and “Religious Warfare”
– National Review, April 23, 1963, 315–17.Freedom of the Press and the Alien and Sedition Laws: A Reappraisal
– Supreme Court Review 109 (1970).Beyond the (Garbage) Pale, or Democracy, Censorship and the Arts
– Censorship and Freedom of Expression: Essays on Obscenity and the Law, Harry M. Clor, ed. (Skokie, IL: Rand McNally & Company, 1971); reprinted in Walter Berns, In Defense of Liberal Democracy (Regnery Gateway, 1984).Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
– American Political Thought, Morton J. Frisch and Richard G. Stevens, eds. (1971, 1983).Pornography Vs. Democracy: The Case for Censorship
– Public Interest 22 (Winter 1971), 3–24.Excerpt: The case against censorship is very old and very familiar. Almost anyone can formulate it without difficulty. One has merely to set the venerable Milton‘s Areopagitica in… More
Free Speech and Free Government
– The Political Science Reviewer 2:1 (Fall 1972).Excerpt: It is unfortunate, and a measure of our contemporary difficulties, that too many Americans today would hesitate to agree with Gladstone that the American Constitution was… More
The Constitution and a Responsible Press
– The Mass Media and Modern Democracy, Harry M. Clor, ed. (Skokie, IL: Rand McNally, 1974).The First Amendment and the Future of American Democracy
– Basic Books, 1976; reprinted, Regnery Gateway, 1985.A sharp, in-depth analysis of the First Amendment offering a unique interpretation of our basic freedoms and liberties.
Book Review: The First Amendment and the Future of American Democracy
– Jeremy A. Rabkin, American Spectator (March 1977).Excerpt: In the late 1930s, the Supreme Court largely abandoned its traditional defense of property rights and also gave up its long struggle to maintain a balance in the federal system by… More
The First Amendment and the Future of American Democracy
– William J. Bennett, Commentary (May 1977).Abstract: The recent First Amendment decisions of the Supreme Court have met with criticism both from those who think the Court has gone too far and from those who think it has not gone far… More
The Role of the Court
– William J. Bennett, Commentary, May 1977.Excerpt: The recent First Amendment decisions of the Supreme Court have met with criticism both from those who think the Court has gone too far and from those who think it has not gone far… More
Walter Berns: Philosopher of the First Amendment
– William A. Stanmeyer, Modern Age (December 1977), 367–76.Free Speech and the Corporation
– National Legal Center for the Public Interest, 1979.Liberal Censorship
– Public Interest 65 (Fall 1981), 146–49.Excerpt: One would have thought that the censorship issue had been settled in the liberal societies of the West. In theory pornography may be proscribed by the law-in the United States, for… More
No One Blushes Anymore
– George Will, Washington Post, September 15, 1985.Excerpt: Walter Berns, the political philosopher, asks: What if, contrary to Freud and much conventional wisdom, shame is natural to man and shamelessness is acquired? If so, the… More
Pornography, Women, Censorship and Morality
– Law in Context 7:1 (1989).Flag-Burning & Other Modes of Expression
– Commentary, October 1989; reprinted in Democracy and the Constitution: Landmarks of Contemporary Political Thought (AEI Press, 2006).Excerpt: This summer, Washington was given patriotism and obscenity to deal with when the Supreme Court upheld the burning of the flag by an angry Gregory Johnson and when an embarrassed… More
Liberal Democracy and Justice in the Constitution of Walter Berns
– Richard G. Stevens, The Political Science Reviewer 22 (1993).Excerpt: Walter Berns admits in the preface to his book by that very title that he had all along been writing in defense of liberal democracy. This is not simply a post litem motam… More
Leaving Town Alive
– Commentary, August 1993.Excerpt: John Frohnmayer had two purposes in mind when he set out to write this book: he wanted to get even with all the enemies (or perceived enemies) he had made during the two-and-a-… More
Learning to Live with Sex and Violence
– National Review, November 1, 1993.Excerpt: Many years ago, at a supper club in Chicago, I asked a waiter (decked out, as I recall, like some character from the Arabian Nights) why they served their steaks on flaming… More
When Men Are the Prey of Women
– Washington Times, October 25, 1994.Excerpt: In 1971, the Supreme Court told us that “one man’s vulgarity is another’s lyric,” but nowadays a man’s vulgarity is more likely to be seen as sexual… More
Dirty Words
– Public Interest 114 (Winter 1994), 119–25.Excerpt: The world has never had a good definition of liberty, and the American people, just now, are much in need of one.” What Abraham Lincoln said in 1864 about liberty in general can… More
Blue Movies
– Public Interest 119 (Summer 1995), 86–90; reprinted in Democracy and the Constitution: Landmarks of Contemporary Political Thought (AEI Press, 2006).Excerpt: Hollywood Censored, we are told on the book’s dust jacket, examines how hundreds of films–Mae West comedies, serious dramas, and films with a social… More
Taking Virtue Seriously
– Public Interest 128 (Summer 1997), 122–26.Excerpt: In 1790-91, Supreme Court Justice James Wilson delivered a series of lectures on the law at what was to become the University of Pennsylvania and before an audience that included… More
Is There a Worldwide Conservative Crackup?
– Weekly Standard, August 25, 1997.Excerpt: Ask a conservative what he wants to conserve and he is likely to say ” freedom,” including the freedom to spend his own money; hence, his dislike of taxes. But ask the… More
The Clear and Present Danger Test
– Journal of Supreme Court History 25:2 (July 2000).From the Ashes Comes the Rebirth of Patriotism
– AEI Online, October 1, 2001.Excerpt: The terrorist attacks of September 11 have inspired a greater outpouring of patriotism by the American people than have many previous wars, and numerous displays of the American… More
Sticks and Stones?
– Commentary, June 2005.Excerpt: In 1925, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said, and in some circles became famous for saying, “if, in the long run, the beliefs expressed in proletarian dictatorship are destined to… More
Under God
– In Democracy and the Constitution: Landmarks of Contemporary Political Thought (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 2006).Excerpt: On March 24, 2004, the Supreme Court heard arguments in still another of what civil libertarians insist on calling establishment-of-religion cases, Elk Grove Unified School… More
Walter Berns’ Constitution by Christopher DeMuth
– Remarks by Christopher DeMuth at a Constitution Day seminar in honor of Walter Berns, hosted by the American Enterprise Institute, September 20, 2011.Excerpt: In America today, the Constitution has come to mean constitutional law. Most Americans venerate their Constitution and realize that it is an important source of their liberties and… More
Walter Berns, Teacher and Patriot by Leon Kass
– Leon R. Kass, The American, September 27, 2011.Excerpt: It is absolutely fitting and proper to honor Walter Berns in connection with Constitution Day. The U.S. Constitution, and the underlying ideas and ideals of… More
Berns on Free Speech
– Bradley C. S. Watson, remarks from Claremont Institute APSA roundtable, September 2015.Excerpt: Like few others, Walter Berns made it his life’s work to remind us of the reciprocal relationship between rights and duties, individualism and the common good, civil liberties… More
Commentary
Freedom, Virtue and the First Amendment
– The Louisiana State University Press, 1957; reprinted, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1969.This book examines the First Amendment and issues of liberty and the American Founding. Table of Contents Preface Acknowledgments I Censorship: A Classic Issue… More
Book Review: Freedom, Virtue and the First Amendment
– Rene de Visme Williamson, Louisiana Law Review 18:2 (February 1958).Excerpt: In an age when conflicting ideologies are competing for the support of mankind and when constitutional issues regarding civil liberties are dividing the American people in opposing… More
Liberty, Justice, and the Constitution
– Marshall Smelser, The Review of Politics 20:2 (April 1958), 270–72.The Case of the Censored Librarian
– The American Foundation for Continuing Education, 1959.School Prayers and “Religious Warfare”
– National Review, April 23, 1963, 315–17.Freedom of the Press and the Alien and Sedition Laws: A Reappraisal
– Supreme Court Review 109 (1970).Beyond the (Garbage) Pale, or Democracy, Censorship and the Arts
– Censorship and Freedom of Expression: Essays on Obscenity and the Law, Harry M. Clor, ed. (Skokie, IL: Rand McNally & Company, 1971); reprinted in Walter Berns, In Defense of Liberal Democracy (Regnery Gateway, 1984).Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
– American Political Thought, Morton J. Frisch and Richard G. Stevens, eds. (1971, 1983).Pornography Vs. Democracy: The Case for Censorship
– Public Interest 22 (Winter 1971), 3–24.Excerpt: The case against censorship is very old and very familiar. Almost anyone can formulate it without difficulty. One has merely to set the venerable Milton‘s Areopagitica in… More
Free Speech and Free Government
– The Political Science Reviewer 2:1 (Fall 1972).Excerpt: It is unfortunate, and a measure of our contemporary difficulties, that too many Americans today would hesitate to agree with Gladstone that the American Constitution was… More
The Constitution and a Responsible Press
– The Mass Media and Modern Democracy, Harry M. Clor, ed. (Skokie, IL: Rand McNally, 1974).The First Amendment and the Future of American Democracy
– Basic Books, 1976; reprinted, Regnery Gateway, 1985.A sharp, in-depth analysis of the First Amendment offering a unique interpretation of our basic freedoms and liberties.
Book Review: The First Amendment and the Future of American Democracy
– Jeremy A. Rabkin, American Spectator (March 1977).Excerpt: In the late 1930s, the Supreme Court largely abandoned its traditional defense of property rights and also gave up its long struggle to maintain a balance in the federal system by… More
The First Amendment and the Future of American Democracy
– William J. Bennett, Commentary (May 1977).Abstract: The recent First Amendment decisions of the Supreme Court have met with criticism both from those who think the Court has gone too far and from those who think it has not gone far… More
The Role of the Court
– William J. Bennett, Commentary, May 1977.Excerpt: The recent First Amendment decisions of the Supreme Court have met with criticism both from those who think the Court has gone too far and from those who think it has not gone far… More
Walter Berns: Philosopher of the First Amendment
– William A. Stanmeyer, Modern Age (December 1977), 367–76.Free Speech and the Corporation
– National Legal Center for the Public Interest, 1979.Liberal Censorship
– Public Interest 65 (Fall 1981), 146–49.Excerpt: One would have thought that the censorship issue had been settled in the liberal societies of the West. In theory pornography may be proscribed by the law-in the United States, for… More
No One Blushes Anymore
– George Will, Washington Post, September 15, 1985.Excerpt: Walter Berns, the political philosopher, asks: What if, contrary to Freud and much conventional wisdom, shame is natural to man and shamelessness is acquired? If so, the… More
Pornography, Women, Censorship and Morality
– Law in Context 7:1 (1989).Flag-Burning & Other Modes of Expression
– Commentary, October 1989; reprinted in Democracy and the Constitution: Landmarks of Contemporary Political Thought (AEI Press, 2006).Excerpt: This summer, Washington was given patriotism and obscenity to deal with when the Supreme Court upheld the burning of the flag by an angry Gregory Johnson and when an embarrassed… More
Liberal Democracy and Justice in the Constitution of Walter Berns
– Richard G. Stevens, The Political Science Reviewer 22 (1993).Excerpt: Walter Berns admits in the preface to his book by that very title that he had all along been writing in defense of liberal democracy. This is not simply a post litem motam… More
Leaving Town Alive
– Commentary, August 1993.Excerpt: John Frohnmayer had two purposes in mind when he set out to write this book: he wanted to get even with all the enemies (or perceived enemies) he had made during the two-and-a-… More
Learning to Live with Sex and Violence
– National Review, November 1, 1993.Excerpt: Many years ago, at a supper club in Chicago, I asked a waiter (decked out, as I recall, like some character from the Arabian Nights) why they served their steaks on flaming… More
When Men Are the Prey of Women
– Washington Times, October 25, 1994.Excerpt: In 1971, the Supreme Court told us that “one man’s vulgarity is another’s lyric,” but nowadays a man’s vulgarity is more likely to be seen as sexual… More
Dirty Words
– Public Interest 114 (Winter 1994), 119–25.Excerpt: The world has never had a good definition of liberty, and the American people, just now, are much in need of one.” What Abraham Lincoln said in 1864 about liberty in general can… More
Blue Movies
– Public Interest 119 (Summer 1995), 86–90; reprinted in Democracy and the Constitution: Landmarks of Contemporary Political Thought (AEI Press, 2006).Excerpt: Hollywood Censored, we are told on the book’s dust jacket, examines how hundreds of films–Mae West comedies, serious dramas, and films with a social… More
Taking Virtue Seriously
– Public Interest 128 (Summer 1997), 122–26.Excerpt: In 1790-91, Supreme Court Justice James Wilson delivered a series of lectures on the law at what was to become the University of Pennsylvania and before an audience that included… More
Is There a Worldwide Conservative Crackup?
– Weekly Standard, August 25, 1997.Excerpt: Ask a conservative what he wants to conserve and he is likely to say ” freedom,” including the freedom to spend his own money; hence, his dislike of taxes. But ask the… More
The Clear and Present Danger Test
– Journal of Supreme Court History 25:2 (July 2000).From the Ashes Comes the Rebirth of Patriotism
– AEI Online, October 1, 2001.Excerpt: The terrorist attacks of September 11 have inspired a greater outpouring of patriotism by the American people than have many previous wars, and numerous displays of the American… More
Sticks and Stones?
– Commentary, June 2005.Excerpt: In 1925, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said, and in some circles became famous for saying, “if, in the long run, the beliefs expressed in proletarian dictatorship are destined to… More
Under God
– In Democracy and the Constitution: Landmarks of Contemporary Political Thought (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 2006).Excerpt: On March 24, 2004, the Supreme Court heard arguments in still another of what civil libertarians insist on calling establishment-of-religion cases, Elk Grove Unified School… More
Walter Berns’ Constitution by Christopher DeMuth
– Remarks by Christopher DeMuth at a Constitution Day seminar in honor of Walter Berns, hosted by the American Enterprise Institute, September 20, 2011.Excerpt: In America today, the Constitution has come to mean constitutional law. Most Americans venerate their Constitution and realize that it is an important source of their liberties and… More
Walter Berns, Teacher and Patriot by Leon Kass
– Leon R. Kass, The American, September 27, 2011.Excerpt: It is absolutely fitting and proper to honor Walter Berns in connection with Constitution Day. The U.S. Constitution, and the underlying ideas and ideals of… More
Berns on Free Speech
– Bradley C. S. Watson, remarks from Claremont Institute APSA roundtable, September 2015.Excerpt: Like few others, Walter Berns made it his life’s work to remind us of the reciprocal relationship between rights and duties, individualism and the common good, civil liberties… More
Multimedia
Freedom, Virtue and the First Amendment
– The Louisiana State University Press, 1957; reprinted, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1969.This book examines the First Amendment and issues of liberty and the American Founding. Table of Contents Preface Acknowledgments I Censorship: A Classic Issue… More
Book Review: Freedom, Virtue and the First Amendment
– Rene de Visme Williamson, Louisiana Law Review 18:2 (February 1958).Excerpt: In an age when conflicting ideologies are competing for the support of mankind and when constitutional issues regarding civil liberties are dividing the American people in opposing… More
Liberty, Justice, and the Constitution
– Marshall Smelser, The Review of Politics 20:2 (April 1958), 270–72.The Case of the Censored Librarian
– The American Foundation for Continuing Education, 1959.School Prayers and “Religious Warfare”
– National Review, April 23, 1963, 315–17.Freedom of the Press and the Alien and Sedition Laws: A Reappraisal
– Supreme Court Review 109 (1970).Beyond the (Garbage) Pale, or Democracy, Censorship and the Arts
– Censorship and Freedom of Expression: Essays on Obscenity and the Law, Harry M. Clor, ed. (Skokie, IL: Rand McNally & Company, 1971); reprinted in Walter Berns, In Defense of Liberal Democracy (Regnery Gateway, 1984).Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
– American Political Thought, Morton J. Frisch and Richard G. Stevens, eds. (1971, 1983).Pornography Vs. Democracy: The Case for Censorship
– Public Interest 22 (Winter 1971), 3–24.Excerpt: The case against censorship is very old and very familiar. Almost anyone can formulate it without difficulty. One has merely to set the venerable Milton‘s Areopagitica in… More
Free Speech and Free Government
– The Political Science Reviewer 2:1 (Fall 1972).Excerpt: It is unfortunate, and a measure of our contemporary difficulties, that too many Americans today would hesitate to agree with Gladstone that the American Constitution was… More
The Constitution and a Responsible Press
– The Mass Media and Modern Democracy, Harry M. Clor, ed. (Skokie, IL: Rand McNally, 1974).The First Amendment and the Future of American Democracy
– Basic Books, 1976; reprinted, Regnery Gateway, 1985.A sharp, in-depth analysis of the First Amendment offering a unique interpretation of our basic freedoms and liberties.
Book Review: The First Amendment and the Future of American Democracy
– Jeremy A. Rabkin, American Spectator (March 1977).Excerpt: In the late 1930s, the Supreme Court largely abandoned its traditional defense of property rights and also gave up its long struggle to maintain a balance in the federal system by… More
The First Amendment and the Future of American Democracy
– William J. Bennett, Commentary (May 1977).Abstract: The recent First Amendment decisions of the Supreme Court have met with criticism both from those who think the Court has gone too far and from those who think it has not gone far… More
The Role of the Court
– William J. Bennett, Commentary, May 1977.Excerpt: The recent First Amendment decisions of the Supreme Court have met with criticism both from those who think the Court has gone too far and from those who think it has not gone far… More
Walter Berns: Philosopher of the First Amendment
– William A. Stanmeyer, Modern Age (December 1977), 367–76.Free Speech and the Corporation
– National Legal Center for the Public Interest, 1979.Liberal Censorship
– Public Interest 65 (Fall 1981), 146–49.Excerpt: One would have thought that the censorship issue had been settled in the liberal societies of the West. In theory pornography may be proscribed by the law-in the United States, for… More
No One Blushes Anymore
– George Will, Washington Post, September 15, 1985.Excerpt: Walter Berns, the political philosopher, asks: What if, contrary to Freud and much conventional wisdom, shame is natural to man and shamelessness is acquired? If so, the… More
Pornography, Women, Censorship and Morality
– Law in Context 7:1 (1989).Flag-Burning & Other Modes of Expression
– Commentary, October 1989; reprinted in Democracy and the Constitution: Landmarks of Contemporary Political Thought (AEI Press, 2006).Excerpt: This summer, Washington was given patriotism and obscenity to deal with when the Supreme Court upheld the burning of the flag by an angry Gregory Johnson and when an embarrassed… More
Liberal Democracy and Justice in the Constitution of Walter Berns
– Richard G. Stevens, The Political Science Reviewer 22 (1993).Excerpt: Walter Berns admits in the preface to his book by that very title that he had all along been writing in defense of liberal democracy. This is not simply a post litem motam… More
Leaving Town Alive
– Commentary, August 1993.Excerpt: John Frohnmayer had two purposes in mind when he set out to write this book: he wanted to get even with all the enemies (or perceived enemies) he had made during the two-and-a-… More
Learning to Live with Sex and Violence
– National Review, November 1, 1993.Excerpt: Many years ago, at a supper club in Chicago, I asked a waiter (decked out, as I recall, like some character from the Arabian Nights) why they served their steaks on flaming… More
When Men Are the Prey of Women
– Washington Times, October 25, 1994.Excerpt: In 1971, the Supreme Court told us that “one man’s vulgarity is another’s lyric,” but nowadays a man’s vulgarity is more likely to be seen as sexual… More
Dirty Words
– Public Interest 114 (Winter 1994), 119–25.Excerpt: The world has never had a good definition of liberty, and the American people, just now, are much in need of one.” What Abraham Lincoln said in 1864 about liberty in general can… More
Blue Movies
– Public Interest 119 (Summer 1995), 86–90; reprinted in Democracy and the Constitution: Landmarks of Contemporary Political Thought (AEI Press, 2006).Excerpt: Hollywood Censored, we are told on the book’s dust jacket, examines how hundreds of films–Mae West comedies, serious dramas, and films with a social… More
Taking Virtue Seriously
– Public Interest 128 (Summer 1997), 122–26.Excerpt: In 1790-91, Supreme Court Justice James Wilson delivered a series of lectures on the law at what was to become the University of Pennsylvania and before an audience that included… More
Is There a Worldwide Conservative Crackup?
– Weekly Standard, August 25, 1997.Excerpt: Ask a conservative what he wants to conserve and he is likely to say ” freedom,” including the freedom to spend his own money; hence, his dislike of taxes. But ask the… More
The Clear and Present Danger Test
– Journal of Supreme Court History 25:2 (July 2000).From the Ashes Comes the Rebirth of Patriotism
– AEI Online, October 1, 2001.Excerpt: The terrorist attacks of September 11 have inspired a greater outpouring of patriotism by the American people than have many previous wars, and numerous displays of the American… More
Sticks and Stones?
– Commentary, June 2005.Excerpt: In 1925, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said, and in some circles became famous for saying, “if, in the long run, the beliefs expressed in proletarian dictatorship are destined to… More
Under God
– In Democracy and the Constitution: Landmarks of Contemporary Political Thought (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 2006).Excerpt: On March 24, 2004, the Supreme Court heard arguments in still another of what civil libertarians insist on calling establishment-of-religion cases, Elk Grove Unified School… More
Walter Berns’ Constitution by Christopher DeMuth
– Remarks by Christopher DeMuth at a Constitution Day seminar in honor of Walter Berns, hosted by the American Enterprise Institute, September 20, 2011.Excerpt: In America today, the Constitution has come to mean constitutional law. Most Americans venerate their Constitution and realize that it is an important source of their liberties and… More
Walter Berns, Teacher and Patriot by Leon Kass
– Leon R. Kass, The American, September 27, 2011.Excerpt: It is absolutely fitting and proper to honor Walter Berns in connection with Constitution Day. The U.S. Constitution, and the underlying ideas and ideals of… More
Berns on Free Speech
– Bradley C. S. Watson, remarks from Claremont Institute APSA roundtable, September 2015.Excerpt: Like few others, Walter Berns made it his life’s work to remind us of the reciprocal relationship between rights and duties, individualism and the common good, civil liberties… More
Teaching
Freedom, Virtue and the First Amendment
– The Louisiana State University Press, 1957; reprinted, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1969.This book examines the First Amendment and issues of liberty and the American Founding. Table of Contents Preface Acknowledgments I Censorship: A Classic Issue… More
Book Review: Freedom, Virtue and the First Amendment
– Rene de Visme Williamson, Louisiana Law Review 18:2 (February 1958).Excerpt: In an age when conflicting ideologies are competing for the support of mankind and when constitutional issues regarding civil liberties are dividing the American people in opposing… More
Liberty, Justice, and the Constitution
– Marshall Smelser, The Review of Politics 20:2 (April 1958), 270–72.The Case of the Censored Librarian
– The American Foundation for Continuing Education, 1959.School Prayers and “Religious Warfare”
– National Review, April 23, 1963, 315–17.Freedom of the Press and the Alien and Sedition Laws: A Reappraisal
– Supreme Court Review 109 (1970).Beyond the (Garbage) Pale, or Democracy, Censorship and the Arts
– Censorship and Freedom of Expression: Essays on Obscenity and the Law, Harry M. Clor, ed. (Skokie, IL: Rand McNally & Company, 1971); reprinted in Walter Berns, In Defense of Liberal Democracy (Regnery Gateway, 1984).Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
– American Political Thought, Morton J. Frisch and Richard G. Stevens, eds. (1971, 1983).Pornography Vs. Democracy: The Case for Censorship
– Public Interest 22 (Winter 1971), 3–24.Excerpt: The case against censorship is very old and very familiar. Almost anyone can formulate it without difficulty. One has merely to set the venerable Milton‘s Areopagitica in… More
Free Speech and Free Government
– The Political Science Reviewer 2:1 (Fall 1972).Excerpt: It is unfortunate, and a measure of our contemporary difficulties, that too many Americans today would hesitate to agree with Gladstone that the American Constitution was… More
The Constitution and a Responsible Press
– The Mass Media and Modern Democracy, Harry M. Clor, ed. (Skokie, IL: Rand McNally, 1974).The First Amendment and the Future of American Democracy
– Basic Books, 1976; reprinted, Regnery Gateway, 1985.A sharp, in-depth analysis of the First Amendment offering a unique interpretation of our basic freedoms and liberties.
Book Review: The First Amendment and the Future of American Democracy
– Jeremy A. Rabkin, American Spectator (March 1977).Excerpt: In the late 1930s, the Supreme Court largely abandoned its traditional defense of property rights and also gave up its long struggle to maintain a balance in the federal system by… More
The First Amendment and the Future of American Democracy
– William J. Bennett, Commentary (May 1977).Abstract: The recent First Amendment decisions of the Supreme Court have met with criticism both from those who think the Court has gone too far and from those who think it has not gone far… More
The Role of the Court
– William J. Bennett, Commentary, May 1977.Excerpt: The recent First Amendment decisions of the Supreme Court have met with criticism both from those who think the Court has gone too far and from those who think it has not gone far… More
Walter Berns: Philosopher of the First Amendment
– William A. Stanmeyer, Modern Age (December 1977), 367–76.Free Speech and the Corporation
– National Legal Center for the Public Interest, 1979.Liberal Censorship
– Public Interest 65 (Fall 1981), 146–49.Excerpt: One would have thought that the censorship issue had been settled in the liberal societies of the West. In theory pornography may be proscribed by the law-in the United States, for… More
No One Blushes Anymore
– George Will, Washington Post, September 15, 1985.Excerpt: Walter Berns, the political philosopher, asks: What if, contrary to Freud and much conventional wisdom, shame is natural to man and shamelessness is acquired? If so, the… More
Pornography, Women, Censorship and Morality
– Law in Context 7:1 (1989).Flag-Burning & Other Modes of Expression
– Commentary, October 1989; reprinted in Democracy and the Constitution: Landmarks of Contemporary Political Thought (AEI Press, 2006).Excerpt: This summer, Washington was given patriotism and obscenity to deal with when the Supreme Court upheld the burning of the flag by an angry Gregory Johnson and when an embarrassed… More
Liberal Democracy and Justice in the Constitution of Walter Berns
– Richard G. Stevens, The Political Science Reviewer 22 (1993).Excerpt: Walter Berns admits in the preface to his book by that very title that he had all along been writing in defense of liberal democracy. This is not simply a post litem motam… More
Leaving Town Alive
– Commentary, August 1993.Excerpt: John Frohnmayer had two purposes in mind when he set out to write this book: he wanted to get even with all the enemies (or perceived enemies) he had made during the two-and-a-… More
Learning to Live with Sex and Violence
– National Review, November 1, 1993.Excerpt: Many years ago, at a supper club in Chicago, I asked a waiter (decked out, as I recall, like some character from the Arabian Nights) why they served their steaks on flaming… More
When Men Are the Prey of Women
– Washington Times, October 25, 1994.Excerpt: In 1971, the Supreme Court told us that “one man’s vulgarity is another’s lyric,” but nowadays a man’s vulgarity is more likely to be seen as sexual… More
Dirty Words
– Public Interest 114 (Winter 1994), 119–25.Excerpt: The world has never had a good definition of liberty, and the American people, just now, are much in need of one.” What Abraham Lincoln said in 1864 about liberty in general can… More
Blue Movies
– Public Interest 119 (Summer 1995), 86–90; reprinted in Democracy and the Constitution: Landmarks of Contemporary Political Thought (AEI Press, 2006).Excerpt: Hollywood Censored, we are told on the book’s dust jacket, examines how hundreds of films–Mae West comedies, serious dramas, and films with a social… More
Taking Virtue Seriously
– Public Interest 128 (Summer 1997), 122–26.Excerpt: In 1790-91, Supreme Court Justice James Wilson delivered a series of lectures on the law at what was to become the University of Pennsylvania and before an audience that included… More
Is There a Worldwide Conservative Crackup?
– Weekly Standard, August 25, 1997.Excerpt: Ask a conservative what he wants to conserve and he is likely to say ” freedom,” including the freedom to spend his own money; hence, his dislike of taxes. But ask the… More
The Clear and Present Danger Test
– Journal of Supreme Court History 25:2 (July 2000).From the Ashes Comes the Rebirth of Patriotism
– AEI Online, October 1, 2001.Excerpt: The terrorist attacks of September 11 have inspired a greater outpouring of patriotism by the American people than have many previous wars, and numerous displays of the American… More
Sticks and Stones?
– Commentary, June 2005.Excerpt: In 1925, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said, and in some circles became famous for saying, “if, in the long run, the beliefs expressed in proletarian dictatorship are destined to… More
Under God
– In Democracy and the Constitution: Landmarks of Contemporary Political Thought (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 2006).Excerpt: On March 24, 2004, the Supreme Court heard arguments in still another of what civil libertarians insist on calling establishment-of-religion cases, Elk Grove Unified School… More
Walter Berns’ Constitution by Christopher DeMuth
– Remarks by Christopher DeMuth at a Constitution Day seminar in honor of Walter Berns, hosted by the American Enterprise Institute, September 20, 2011.Excerpt: In America today, the Constitution has come to mean constitutional law. Most Americans venerate their Constitution and realize that it is an important source of their liberties and… More
Walter Berns, Teacher and Patriot by Leon Kass
– Leon R. Kass, The American, September 27, 2011.Excerpt: It is absolutely fitting and proper to honor Walter Berns in connection with Constitution Day. The U.S. Constitution, and the underlying ideas and ideals of… More
Berns on Free Speech
– Bradley C. S. Watson, remarks from Claremont Institute APSA roundtable, September 2015.Excerpt: Like few others, Walter Berns made it his life’s work to remind us of the reciprocal relationship between rights and duties, individualism and the common good, civil liberties… More