The Right’s First Amendment

"The Right's First Amendment is an important and very readable guide to the transition from conservative moralism to conservative libertarianism. Batchis expertly documents the powerful impact of this thirty-year transition on constitutional law, politics, and the development of free speech."—Mark Graber, University of Maryland School of Law

"In the realm of 21st century constitutional law, few developments have been as momentous as the increasingly ardent embrace of the First Amendment by conservative jurists and intellectuals. The Right's First Amendment describes, with gusto and fairness, this startling shift in conservative views, one with major impact on the liberty of all Americans."—Floyd Abrams, author of Friend of the Court: On the Front Lines with the First Amendment

"Wayne Batchis is a lawyer-political scientist who impressively deploys both disciplines' approaches to improve our understanding of conservative politics and constitutional principles. The Right's First Amendment provides a compelling and important explanation of the political effort to define conservatism and, in turn, the conservative effort to define expressive freedom."—Douglas E. Edlin, Dickinson College

"Readers interested in judicial politics – and the development of modern conservatism's thinking and action concerning the freedom of speech and civil liberties more generally – will find this book useful, and thought-provoking along many dimensions."—Ken I. Kersch, Law and Politics Book Review