First Amendment Attorney Floyd Abrams Thinks Amber Heard Needs Some Lessons in Law

First Amendment attorney Floyd Abrams responded to remarks Amber Heard made regarding defamation law during her interview with Savannah Guthrie. 

Heard, who largely lost a defamation battle against her ex-husband Johnny Depp, made a legally inaccurate claim about freedom of speech while speaking to Guthrie — a lawyer licensed to practice in Washington, D.C.:

Guthrie: Here’s the thing about the First Amendment. The First Amendment protects free speech. It doesn’t protect lies that amount to defamation, and that was the issue in the case.

Heard: Yes, exactly. You can’t go into — free speech does not protect you if you, you know, go into a crowded theater and you scream ‘fire!’ We get the concept of free speech from the Greeks.

My understanding of what that means is not just the freedom to speak. It’s a freedom to speak truth to power.

Guthrie: But truth is the word.

Heard: Yes.

Guthrie: And that was the issue.

Heard: And that’s all I spoke, and I spoke it to power, and I paid the price.

Abrams pushed back on Heard’s claim during the newest episode of his podcast Speaking Freely, suggesting she take “a lesson or two in law.”

The attorney first pointed to the 1964 case New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, during which the Supreme Court of Alabama ultimately determined the “First Amendment of the U. S. Constitution does not protect libelous publications.”

“Now if I had to guess, I don’t think the court is going to reverse, throw out that 1964 case,” Abrams argued. “I don’t think the votes are there to do it, but there is every reason to think that there are at least three votes to do it because three members of the court have already indicated that they’re ready to do just that.”

Abrams continued, “My view is that we ought to hope and do what we can in terms of public opinion and in terms of thinking about things like this. In terms of talking with each other. It’s just a matter of public opinion mattering, because it does.”

He went on to note that the court consists of human beings, who are naturally interested in what people think, adding, “In this case, about freedom itself.”

“So, that’s where we are. As regards to Amber Heard, she ought to take a lesson or two in law,” Abrams said. “I think she is off base about this.”

Watch above, via Speaking Freely.