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Anthony Lewis
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Joseph Anthony Lewis (March 27, 1927 – March 25, 2013) was an American public intellectual and journalist. He was a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize and was a columnist for The New York Times. He is credited with creating the field of legal journalism in the United States.

Key Information

Early in Lewis' career as a legal journalist, Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter told an editor of The New York Times: "I can't believe what this young man achieved. There are not two justices of this court who have such a grasp of these cases."[1] At his death, Nicholas B. Lemann, the dean of Columbia University School of Journalism, said: "At a liberal moment in American history, he was one of the defining liberal voices."[2]

Early life

[edit]

Lewis was born Joseph Anthony Lewis in New York City on March 27, 1927, to Kassel Lewis, who worked in textiles manufacturing, and Sylvia Surut, who became director of the nursery school at the 92nd Street Y.[3][4] He and his family were Jewish.[5][6] He attended the Horace Mann School in the Bronx, where he was a classmate of Roy Cohn, and graduated from Harvard College in 1948. While at Harvard, he was managing editor of The Harvard Crimson.[7]

Career in journalism

[edit]

Following his college graduation, Lewis worked for The New York Times. He left in 1952 to work for the Democratic National Committee on Adlai Stevenson's presidential campaign. He returned to journalism at The Washington Daily News, an afternoon tabloid. He wrote a series of articles on the case of Abraham Chasanow, a civilian employee of the U.S. Navy, who had been dismissed from his job on the basis of allegations by anonymous informers that he associated with anti-American subversives. The series won Lewis a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 1955.[8]

Lewis returned to The New York Times that year as its Washington bureau chief. He was assigned to cover the Justice Department and the Supreme Court. In 1956–57 he was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard Law School.[1] He won a second Pulitzer Prize in 1963, again in the category National Reporting, for his coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court.[9] The citation singled out his coverage of the court's reasoning in Baker v. Carr, a Supreme Court decision which held that federal courts could exercise authority over legislative redistricting on the part of the states, and the decision's impact on specific states.[1]

In his 1969 history of The New York Times, Gay Talese described Lewis in his Washington years as "cool, lean, well-scrubbed looking, intense and brilliant".[1] Lewis became a member of Senator Robert F. Kennedy's social circle, too conspicuously so in the opinion of Max Frankel, another of the paper's editors.[1]

During a four-month newspaper strike (November 1962 to February 1963), Lewis wrote Gideon's Trumpet, the story of Clarence Earl Gideon, the plaintiff in Gideon v. Wainwright, the 1963 case in which the Supreme Court held that states were required to provide counsel for indigent defendants charged with serious crimes. At Lewis' death it had not been out of print since it was first published.[1] It won the 1965 Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime and in 1980 was adapted as a movie for television and presented by Hallmark Hall of Fame. Lewis played a small role in the film.[citation needed]

Lewis published a second book in 1964, Portrait of a Decade: The Second American Revolution, about the civil rights movement. In 1991, Mr. Lewis published Make No Law, an account of The New York Times v. Sullivan, the 1964 Supreme Court decision that revolutionized American libel law. In Sullivan, the court held that public officials suing critics of their official conduct needed to prove that the contested statement(s) were made with "actual malice", that is, with knowledge that it was false or with "reckless disregard" of whether it was true or not.[1]

The Times moved Lewis to London in 1964, where he was bureau chief with responsibility for broad coverage of politics, culture and, in the words of one editor, "ballet, music, Glyndebourne, la-di-da London society, diplomacy, the British character, you name it".[1] He moved to New York in 1969 and began writing a twice-weekly opinion column for the Times. He continued to write these pieces, which appeared under the heading "At Home Abroad" or "Abroad at Home" depending on his byline, until retiring in 2001. Though wide-ranging in his interests, he often focused on legal questions, advocacy of compromise between Israel and the Palestinians, and criticism of the war in Vietnam and the apartheid regime in South Africa. On December 15, 2001, his final column warned that civil liberties were at risk in the U.S. reaction to the September 11 attacks.[1][4]

Reflecting on his years as a columnist, he said he had learned two lessons:[4]

One is that certainty is the enemy of decency and humanity in people who are sure they are right, like Osama bin Laden and (then-Attorney General) John Ashcroft. And secondly that for this country at least, given the kind of obstreperous, populous, diverse country we are, law is the absolute essential. And when governments short-cut the law, it's extremely dangerous.

When told Henry Kissinger had once described him as "always wrong", Lewis replied: "Probably because I wrote in a very uncomplimentary way about him. I didn’t like him. He did things that were very damaging to human beings."[10]

Other activities

[edit]

Beginning in the mid-1970s, Lewis taught a course in First Amendment and the Supreme Court at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism for 23 years.[2] He held the school's James Madison chair in First Amendment Issues from 1982. He lectured at Harvard from 1974 to 1989 and was a visiting lecturer at several other colleges and universities, including the universities of Arizona, California, Illinois, and Oregon.[4]

In 1983, Lewis received the Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award as well as an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Colby College. On January 8, 2001, he received the Presidential Citizens Medal from President Bill Clinton. On October 21, 2008, the National Coalition Against Censorship honored him for his work in the area of First Amendment rights and free expression.

He served for decades as a member of the Harvard Crimson's graduate board and as one of its trustees. He was a key player in the fundraising and reconstruction of the paper's Plympton Street building.[2]

Lewis was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2005.[11]

He served on the board of directors of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and its policy committee. CPJ awarded him its Burton Benjamin Award for lifetime achievement in 2009.[12]

He was chosen Class Day speaker at Harvard in 1997.[2]

He was a member of the Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute's International Council.

Views on the press

[edit]

Lewis read the First Amendment as a restriction on the ability of the federal government to regulate speech, but opposed attempts to broaden its meaning to create special protection for journalists. He approved when a federal court in 2005 jailed Judith Miller, a New York Times reporter, for refusing to name her confidential sources as a special prosecutor demanded she do. Max Frankel, another Times editor said: "In his later years he turned a little bit against the press, which he loved. But he disagreed with those of us who felt that we couldn't just trust the courts to defend our freedom".[13]

Lewis also opposed journalists' advocacy of a federal "shield law" to allow journalists to refuse to reveal their sources. He cited the case of Wen Ho Lee, whose privacy was, in Lewis' view, violated by newspapers who published leaked information and then refused to identify the sources of those leaks, preferring to agree to a financial settlement. He noted that the newspapers said they were acting to "protect our journalists from further sanctions", thus privileging their own needs over the damage caused the victim of the false information they printed.[14]

Personal life

[edit]

On July 8, 1951, Lewis married Linda J. Rannells,[15] "a tall, blithe student of modern dance" according to Gay Talese.[1] They had three children and divorced in 1982.

Lewis relocated from New York to Cambridge while he was a New York Times columnist. There, in 1984, he married Margaret H. Marshall,[3] an attorney in private practice who later became General Counsel at Harvard University and Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts.

Lewis and his wife were longtime residents of Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Lewis died on March 25, 2013, from renal and heart failure, two days shy of his 86th birthday.[1] He had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease a few years earlier.[4]

Awards

[edit]

Selected writings

[edit]
Author
  • Gideon's Trumpet (Random House, 1964) (Reprint ISBN 0-679-72312-9)
  • Portrait of a Decade: The Second American Revolution (Random House, 1964) (ISBN 0-394-44412-4)
  • Make No Law: The Sullivan Case and the First Amendment (Random House, 1991) (ISBN 0-394-58774-X)
  • The Supreme Court and How It Works: The Story of the Gideon Case (Random House Children's Books, 1966) (ISBN 0-394-91861-4)
  • Freedom for the Thought That We Hate: A Biography of the First Amendment (Basic Books, 2010) (ISBN 0465039170)
Co-author
Editor
  • Written into History: Pulitzer Prize Reporting of the Twentieth Century from The New York Times (Holt, 2001) (ISBN 0-8050-6849-X)
Preface/introduction
Miscellaneous articles

References

[edit]
[edit]
Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia

Anthony Lewis

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Joseph Anthony Lewis (March 27, 1927 – March 25, 2013) was an American journalist, author, and educator renowned for his incisive reporting on the U.S. and during a career spanning over four decades primarily at .
Lewis earned two Pulitzer Prizes: the first in 1955 for national reporting on the dismissal of a civilian employee deemed a security risk, exposing procedural flaws in government employment practices, and the second in 1963 for his comprehensive coverage of the 's decisions under .
His seminal book (1964) chronicled the case, which extended the to indigent criminal defendants in state courts, transforming legal access to justice and popularizing constitutional history through .
As a longtime for "Abroad at Home" from 1969 to 2001, Lewis analyzed First Amendment protections, foreign policy, and domestic legal issues, while his academic roles, including lecturing at for 15 years, shaped generations of journalists and lawyers on the interplay of law and press freedom.

Early Life and Education

Childhood and Family Background

Joseph Anthony Lewis was born on March 27, 1927, in to Kassel Lewis, a textile company executive, and Sylvia Surut Lewis, who later directed a nursery school. Known as Anthony from birth, he grew up in an upper-middle-class family in , where his parents had married in 1925 and his mother had graduated from in 1927 shortly before his arrival. Lewis attended the , an elite private preparatory institution in , during his early years, reflecting the family's emphasis on quality education amid New York's professional milieu. Specific details of his childhood experiences remain sparse in available records, with no notable public accounts of siblings or formative events beyond the stability provided by his parents' careers in business and .

Academic Training and Early Influences

Lewis graduated from the in before enrolling at , where he earned a B.A. in 1948. As a freshman in 1946, he contributed to the relaunch of , gaining early experience in student journalism that shaped his interest in reporting. Lacking formal legal training initially, Lewis pursued targeted study in 1956–1957 via a at , focusing on law "with special reference to the ." This fellowship, arranged by New York Times Washington bureau chief , equipped him with foundational knowledge of , enabling deeper coverage of judicial matters without a full . His academic experiences at Harvard fostered a commitment to press freedom and , influences evident in his subsequent reporting on First Amendment cases. These formative years emphasized rigorous factual analysis over partisan narrative, aligning with his later critiques of institutional biases in legal and media spheres.

Journalistic Career

Entry into Journalism and Early Roles

Lewis joined shortly after graduating from in 1948, serving as a deskman in the newspaper's Sunday Department until 1952. In 1952, he transitioned to the Washington Daily News as a reporter. There, Lewis investigated and reported on the unjust dismissal of a U.S. civilian employee falsely accused of communist affiliations during the McCarthy era, producing a series that exposed procedural flaws and lack of evidence in the case; this work earned him the 1955 for national reporting. The series detailed how the employee's was revoked without , highlighting broader issues in federal loyalty investigations, and contributed to the man's reinstatement. In 1955, following the Pulitzer recognition, Lewis returned to The New York Times and joined its Washington Bureau to cover legal and governmental affairs. From 1956 to 1957, he paused his reporting career as a Nieman Fellow at , where he pursued studies in law to deepen his understanding of constitutional issues. Anthony Lewis began covering the upon joining ' Washington bureau in 1955, focusing on the , the Justice Department, and related legal subjects. His reporting emphasized analytical depth, explaining the 's reasoning and societal impacts in accessible language, which transformed legal journalism by shifting from mere summaries to contextual narratives. In 1963, Lewis received the for national reporting for "his distinguished reporting of the proceedings of the United States Supreme Court," particularly during the Warren Court's active period on civil rights and liberties. He covered pivotal cases such as (1963), which extended the to state felony defendants, humanizing legal proceedings through detailed accounts of litigants and arguments. Lewis's pre-reporting scholarship included a 1958 Harvard Law Review article urging judicial intervention in legislative malapportionment, cited in Baker v. Carr (1962) and influencing "one person, one vote" decisions like Reynolds v. Sims (1964) that redrew districts across 46 states. He also lobbied Solicitor General and Attorney General to back plaintiffs in apportionment litigation, blending journalistic and advocacy roles. This tenure, lasting until 1964 when he transferred to the bureau, established standards for coverage, though his alignment with liberal judicial outcomes reflected broader institutional tendencies in toward progressive interpretations of constitutional issues.

Column Writing and International Coverage

In 1969, while serving as The New York Times's bureau chief, Anthony Lewis began contributing a regular column to the newspaper's page, initially titled "At Home Abroad" and later alternating with "Abroad at Home" depending on the . The column appeared twice weekly and focused primarily on international affairs, critiques, and the implications of global events for American interests, continuing until Lewis's retirement on December 15, 2001. In his farewell piece, Lewis reflected on the column's role in addressing issues like the , abroad, and U.S. interventions, emphasizing a perspective rooted in skepticism toward unchecked executive power in foreign relations. Lewis's international coverage extended beyond columns to on-the-ground reporting, particularly during his eight-year tenure as London bureau chief from 1965 to 1972, where he analyzed European responses to U.S. policies and transatlantic tensions. He made notable trips to North Vietnam, including one in May 1972 amid U.S. mining operations in Haiphong harbor, filing dispatches that highlighted North Vietnamese officials' claims of clearing mines and resuming shipping while critiquing American escalation. These reports, drawn from interviews with North Vietnamese interlocutors, portrayed U.S. involvement as misunderstood by Americans and driven by miscalculations, a view Lewis reiterated in columns that debated withdrawal strategies and alleged atrocities. Throughout the and , Lewis's columns frequently dissected U.S. , such as a 1987 piece warning against reverting to Eisenhower-era strategies amid debates over and Soviet relations, arguing that public sentiment favored diplomatic engagement over . He also addressed dynamics and international press freedoms, linking them to broader American commitments, as in discussions of Arab-Israeli conflicts and the role of media in shaping perceptions. His work consistently prioritized empirical assessments of outcomes over ideological alignment, often citing declassified documents or official statements to challenge assumptions of U.S. moral superiority in interventions. This approach drew from his firsthand observations in conflict zones and diplomatic centers, distinguishing his commentary from domestic-focused analysis.

Intellectual Contributions and Views

Advocacy for First Amendment and Press Freedom

Lewis served as a reporter for in its Washington bureau starting in 1955, where he covered the and Justice Department, providing in-depth analysis of decisions that interpreted the First Amendment's protections for speech and press. His reporting during this period, including on the Warren Court's rulings, contributed to public understanding of judicial expansions of free expression rights, earning him a for National Reporting in 1963 for his coverage of cases like . In his 1991 book Make No Law: The Sullivan Case and the First Amendment, Lewis examined the 1964 Supreme Court decision in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, which held that public officials must prove "actual malice"—knowledge of falsity or reckless disregard for the truth—to win libel suits against . This ruling, arising from a civil rights-era advertisement critical of officials, effectively shielded media from crippling claims and bolstered press freedom to report on public issues without fear of retaliation, a development Lewis portrayed as pivotal to preventing government suppression of dissent. Lewis continued his advocacy through columns and later works, arguing against special constitutional privileges for institutional media while upholding broad First Amendment safeguards applicable to all speakers. In a 1978 New York Times column, he rejected preferential treatment for the press over individual speakers, emphasizing the amendment's egalitarian aim. His 2007 book Freedom for the Thought That We Hate: A Biography of the First Amendment traced the doctrine's evolution from limited early protections to modern robust defenses of even offensive speech, drawing on cases like (1919) and highlighting judicial choices that prioritized counter-speech over censorship to foster democratic discourse. Lewis contended that free expression, including tolerance for abhorrent ideas, underpins political liberty and prevents authoritarian overreach, a view he reinforced in public discussions such as a 2007 appearance at the . Throughout his career, Lewis critiqued threats to press independence, such as government secrecy and libel expansions, but opposed measures like a federal shield law for journalists, supporting the Court's 1972 ruling in Branzburg v. Hayes that reporters hold no privilege exempting them from subpoenas. His writings consistently framed the First Amendment as a bulwark against power concentration, informed by historical precedents rather than deference to institutional media claims.

Positions on Civil Liberties and Judicial Decisions

Lewis viewed the Supreme Court as the primary institution safeguarding constitutional liberties, emphasizing its role in interpreting the Bill of Rights to protect individuals against government overreach. He advocated for robust judicial protections in areas such as free speech and due process, often drawing on the Warren Court's expansions of rights during the 1950s and 1960s. On the First Amendment, Lewis strongly supported decisions limiting government restrictions on speech and press, particularly New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964), which established that public officials must prove actual malice to win libel suits against the media, thereby shielding robust criticism of authority. In his book Make No Law: The Sullivan Case and the First Amendment (1991), he detailed how this ruling revolutionized libel law and bolstered civil rights reporting amid Southern resistance. Lewis extended this advocacy in Freedom for the Thought That We Hate: A Biography of the First Amendment (2007), arguing for protections even for offensive or hateful expression as essential to democratic discourse, tracing precedents from sedition laws to modern applications. Regarding , Lewis championed Gideon v. Wainwright (1963), which extended the Sixth Amendment to indigent defendants in state felony cases, fundamentally improving fairness in criminal proceedings. His book (1964) chronicled Clarence Gideon's pro se petition and the justices' deliberations, portraying the decision as a triumph of . He also praised (1962) for enabling federal courts to enforce "one person, one vote" in legislative apportionment, correcting malapportioned districts that diluted urban and minority voices. Lewis critiqued post-9/11 executive actions as erosions of , such as the of U.S. citizens like José Padilla and Yaser Hamdi as "enemy combatants" without trial or adequate access to counsel, which he saw as bypassing judicial oversight. He argued that the Bush administration's resistance to review for detainees and use of secret evidence in asset seizures undermined constitutional checks, urging courts to restore balance in times of fears. Despite such concerns, he maintained faith in the judiciary's capacity to defend liberties, cautioning against patterns of repression during perceived crises.

Foreign Policy Perspectives and Critiques

Lewis emerged as a vocal critic of U.S. involvement in the during the and , arguing that American policymakers misunderstood Vietnamese history and motivations, leading to a protracted and immoral conflict. In a June 18, 1972, New York Times column, he recounted conversations with Vietnamese who emphasized that greater U.S. comprehension of local realities would have prevented the war's escalation, highlighting what he saw as Washington's hubris and detachment from ground-level dynamics. His reporting and commentary contributed to growing domestic opposition, framing the war not merely as a strategic error but as a violation of democratic principles and international norms, with the 1971 leak reinforcing his case that government deceptions prolonged unnecessary suffering. Lewis's critiques extended to post-war reflections, where he urged a fundamental reassessment of U.S. global premises in light of Vietnam's failures, warning against repeating interventionist overreach. In a , 1975, column following the fall of Saigon, he contended that the experience demanded scrutiny of America's tendency to project power without accounting for local agency and long-term consequences, influencing debates on military restraint. He clashed with figures like historian , who accused him of downplaying communist atrocities while emphasizing U.S. errors; Lewis countered by prioritizing evidence of American misconduct, such as in the coverage, though critics later argued this reflected a selective moral lens favoring anti-war narratives over balanced geopolitical analysis. On broader U.S. , Lewis questioned the morality of supporting authoritarian allies, as in his October 21, 1976, critique of Henry Kissinger's approach, which he faulted for bolstering repressive regimes in and elsewhere through aid and diplomacy, prioritizing stability over . He advocated reducing overseas commitments, decrying President Nixon's 1971 failure to fulfill pledges of amid public expectations for a less entangled posture. Regarding the , Lewis expressed early skepticism of Ronald Reagan's 1980s policies, noting in a June 30, 1981, column the administration's unclear stance amid Israeli actions in , and over decades became known for defending Palestinian perspectives against dominant pro-Israel narratives in U.S. media, a position some contemporaries viewed as prescient but others as overly sympathetic to adversarial actors. Critics of Lewis's foreign policy commentary, often from conservative outlets, contended that his emphasis on U.S. flaws—such as in or Kissinger-era —overlooked threats from totalitarian regimes, fostering an isolationist tilt that underestimated the need for robust deterrence during the . His Abroad at Home columns, while praised for eloquence, were faulted for aligning with liberal consensus, potentially amplifying biases against American without sufficient empirical counterweight to ideological adversaries' records. Nonetheless, his insistence on grounding policy in verifiable facts and ethical consistency influenced subsequent journalistic scrutiny of executive overreach in international affairs.

Major Works

Key Books and Their Impacts

Anthony Lewis's most influential book, Gideon's Trumpet (1964), chronicled the Supreme Court case Gideon v. Wainwright (372 U.S. 335), in which the Court ruled on March 18, 1963, that states must provide counsel to indigent defendants in felony cases under the Sixth Amendment, extending the right previously affirmed in Johnson v. Zerbst (304 U.S. 458, 1938) for federal courts. The book detailed Clarence Gideon's handwritten petition from Florida State Prison, the arguments by future Watergate prosecutor Abe Fortas, and the unanimous decision authored by Justice Hugo Black, emphasizing how the case overturned Betts v. Brady (316 U.S. 455, 1942). It won the Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime book in 1965 and has remained in print continuously, serving as a foundational text for legal education on indigent defense rights. Its narrative style popularized complex constitutional law for general audiences, influencing public awareness and contributing to the expansion of public defender systems, though implementation challenges persisted, as later analyses noted uneven funding and caseload burdens post-1963. In Make No Law: The Sullivan Case and the First Amendment (1991), Lewis examined New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (376 U.S. 254, 1964), a landmark ruling that shielded media from libel suits by public officials absent proof of "actual malice"—knowledge of falsity or reckless disregard for truth—thus elevating First Amendment protections over state laws rooted in traditions. Drawing on trial records from , where Commissioner L.B. Sullivan sued over a 1960 civil advertisement, the book argued that pre-Sullivan libel threats had suppressed reporting on Southern segregation, with over 170 suits filed against civil rights advocates by 1960. Critics praised its demonstration of how the decision, penned by Justice William Brennan, curtailed "chilling effects" on , enabling freer coverage of public issues, though Lewis advocated extending "actual malice" limits on damages even for private figures to further insulate press freedoms. The work reinforced Sullivan's role in reshaping libel jurisprudence, cited in subsequent cases like (485 U.S. 46, 1988), but faced scrutiny for potentially overprotecting media errors amid rising claims in the 1980s. Lewis's final major work, Freedom for the Thought That We Hate: A Biography of the First Amendment (2007), traced the evolution of speech protections from the of 1798 through modern rulings, invoking Justice 's dissent in Abrams v. United States (250 U.S. 616, 1919) to argue for tolerating even abhorrent ideas as essential to democratic discourse. Spanning cases like (249 U.S. 47, 1919) and (395 U.S. 444, 1969), it critiqued post-9/11 erosions such as the USA PATRIOT Act's expansions of , while highlighting the First Amendment's shift from a mere political safeguard to a robust legal bulwark by the mid-20th century. Reception focused on its historical synthesis rather than novel arguments, with legal scholars referencing it for Holmes's "" refinement and its caution against viewpoint discrimination, though it drew limited empirical data on speech suppression's causal effects. The book underscored Lewis's lifelong emphasis on in curbing expression, influencing discussions on balancing security and liberty without proposing legislative reforms.

Selected Columns and Long-Form Articles

Lewis's column "Abroad at Home," which ran twice weekly on the Op-Ed page of The New York Times from 1969 until his retirement in 2001, addressed foreign policy, civil liberties, and their intersections with domestic affairs, often drawing on his reporting from abroad. The series alternated titles with "At Home Abroad" based on the column's focus, emphasizing themes of press freedom, judicial restraint, and skepticism toward executive overreach in national security. A prominent early example, "Avoiding a Bloodbath," published March 17, 1975, analyzed the impending collapse of amid U.S. withdrawal, urging congressional action to avert mass executions while critiquing the Ford administration's reluctance to intervene diplomatically. Similarly, "And There Was Darkness," from December 27, , highlighted the isolation of information on Khmer Rouge-controlled , warning of potential atrocities based on accounts and limited diplomatic reports, as no Western observers had direct access post-Phnom Penh's fall. In "5 Minutes to Midnight," dated November 1, 1982, Lewis examined nuclear arms escalation under the Reagan administration, referencing the Doomsday Clock's position and critiquing U.S.-Soviet arms talks for insufficient verification measures amid deployments in . "It Was a Famous ," on June 9, 1987, reflected on congressional hearings into the Iran-Contra affair, praising oversight as a check on covert operations but faulting incomplete accountability for executive-branch actions in and arms sales to . Post-retirement, Lewis contributed long-form pieces to the New York Review of Books. In "Un-American Activities" (October 23, 2003), he scrutinized post-9/11 detentions under the Patriot Act, citing cases of four terrorism-related charges—two acquittals, one guilty plea, and one conviction for support—while arguing that indefinite holds without trial eroded due process norms established since Ex parte Milligan (1866). "Bush and the Lesser Evil" (May 27, 2004) critiqued judicial deference to executive wartime claims, referencing historical precedents like Japanese internment and warning against Supreme Court rulings that prioritized military necessity over individual rights in Guantánamo cases.

Other Activities

Teaching and Academic Roles

Lewis served as a on Law at from 1974 to 1989, teaching a course entitled "The Constitution and the Press" for fifteen years. In this role, he focused on the intersection of constitutional principles and journalistic practice, drawing on his experience as a Supreme Court correspondent. At Columbia University's Graduate School of , Lewis taught for more than 30 years, contributing to the training of future journalists through lectures and courses on press freedom and legal aspects of reporting. His tenure there emphasized practical and ethical dimensions of informed by First Amendment . In 2002, Harvard appointed Lewis as the Visiting Lombard Lecturer on the First Amendment, where he delivered instruction on core protections for speech and press amid evolving legal challenges. He also guest-lectured at various other universities, extending his expertise beyond these primary affiliations.

Public Engagements and Affiliations

Lewis served as a founding board member of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) since its establishment in 1981 and joined its advisory board in February 2008. He was an active member of the Harvard Crimson's graduate board for decades. Throughout his career, Lewis engaged in numerous public lectures and speeches advocating for press freedom and . In 1982, he delivered the Rosenn Lecture at . He presented the John A. Sibley Lecture at the University of Georgia School of Law on March 11, 1998. In 1986, Lewis gave the Mathew O. Tobriner Memorial Lecture titled "Preserving the System: The Role of Judges." He served as the keynote speaker for the 10th annual Davis, Markert, Nickerson Lecture on Academic and Intellectual Freedom at the , addressing "Freedom, The Seamless Web." Lewis continued public speaking into the 2000s, including a lecture at the on October 26, 2004, focusing on the New York Times v. Sullivan case. In 2008, he addressed an ACLU of gathering. He delivered a speech titled "Use It or Lose It" in 2009, emphasizing the necessity of free speech for self-government. Lewis also presented the inaugural Salant Lecture on at the Shorenstein Center.

Personal Life

Family and Relationships

Lewis married Linda Rannells in 1951. The couple had three children: , , and Mia. Their marriage ended in divorce in 1982. In 1984, Lewis married Margaret H. Marshall, a South African-born who served as chief justice of the from 1999 until her retirement in 2010. Marshall survived him following his death in 2013. No children from the second marriage are recorded in available accounts.

Health and Death

Lewis suffered from , diagnosed prior to 2010, which prompted his wife, Margaret H. Marshall, to retire as chief justice of the that year to provide care for him. He died on March 25, 2013, at the age of 85, from complications of renal and at his home in .

Recognition

Awards and Honors

Anthony Lewis won the for National Reporting twice. His first, in 1955, recognized a series of articles on the dismissal of a U.S. civilian employee as a security risk, written while at the Washington Daily News. The second, awarded in 1963, honored his comprehensive coverage of the U.S. for , which helped establish modern legal journalism standards. In 1983, presented Lewis with the , recognizing his defense of press freedom and courageous . That year, he also received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the same institution. On January 8, 2001, President awarded him the for exemplary service in advancing constitutional understanding through . Lewis earned additional honorary degrees, including a from in 1982, from in 2002, and from in 2003.

Professional Accolades

Anthony Lewis received the for National Reporting in 1955 for his investigative series on the unjust dismissal of a U.S. civilian employee labeled a security risk during the McCarthy era, highlighting violations while working for the Washington Daily News. In 1963, he was awarded a second for National Reporting for his in-depth coverage of the U.S. , particularly the landmark reapportionment cases that reshaped legislative districting under the principle of "one person, one vote," establishing him as a pioneer in legal journalism. Lewis earned the Award in 1983 from , recognizing his courageous journalism and commitment to , exemplified by his defense of and First Amendment principles throughout his career. On January 8, 2001, President presented Lewis with the , honoring his Pulitzer-winning reporting, profound insights into constitutional law, and lifelong advocacy for free speech and democratic values.
AwardYearCitation Summary
for National Reporting1955Series on Navy security risk dismissal exposing issues.
for National Reporting1963 coverage, including reapportionment decisions.
Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award1983Courage in and press freedom advocacy.
2001Contributions to and constitutional understanding.

Reception and Legacy

Achievements and Influence

Lewis received the for national reporting twice, first in 1955 for a series of articles on the of a civilian Navy employee accused of being a security risk, while working for the Washington Daily News. His second Pulitzer came in 1963 for his coverage of the U.S. at , where he explained complex legal decisions in accessible terms, setting a new standard for reporting on the judiciary. In his books, Lewis detailed landmark cases that expanded . Gideon's Trumpet (1964) chronicled Clarence Earl Gideon's handwritten appeal leading to the Supreme Court's 1963 decision in , which established the right to court-appointed counsel for indigent defendants in state felony cases, popularizing the case's narrative and underscoring the judiciary's role in protecting individual rights. Make No Law: The Sullivan Case and the First Amendment (1991) examined New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964), which raised the bar for public officials to prove libel by requiring , thereby strengthening press freedoms under the First Amendment. Lewis's influence extended to pioneering legal by humanizing legal processes and advocating for through his reporting and columns, which clarified the societal implications of court rulings during the Warren Court's era of expanding rights from to . His work inspired subsequent generations of journalists to cover law with depth and context, fostering greater public understanding of constitutional principles, though his advocacy sometimes blurred lines between reporting and .

Criticisms and Debates

Lewis's dual role as a reporter and advocate for legal reforms, particularly during his coverage of the in the late 1950s and early 1960s, sparked debates over journalistic ethics and objectivity. While employed by , he authored a 1958 article urging judicial intervention in legislative apportionment, which influenced key decisions like (1962) and the "one person, one vote" rulings (, 1964), reshaping electoral districts across the . He also lobbied and to support federal briefs in these cases. Contemporary standards, shaped by stricter separations between reporting and advocacy, would likely view such involvement as a , though norms of the era permitted it, with his editors endorsing the approach. Conservative critics faulted Lewis's later columns for embodying liberal dogmatism, exemplified by his December 2001 New York Times piece equating with —pairing with —and decrying post-9/11 detentions under as "Kafkaesque" overreactions driven by unreasoning fear. Reviewers from outlets like described this as a of "politically correct clichés" blending smugness with disdain, prioritizing past grievances like McCarthyism over contemporary security realities, and upholding East Coast establishment orthodoxies without fresh insight. Such critiques, rooted in conservative skepticism of expansive amid threats, contrasted with Lewis's insistence that measures like indefinite detentions eroded constitutional norms without proportionate gains in safety. Even among free speech advocates, Lewis's absolutist defense of First Amendment protections faced contention for underestimating structural vulnerabilities. In reviews of his 2007 book Freedom for the Thought That We Hate, commentators in left-leaning publications argued his optimism—that U.S. commitment to free expression remained unshaken despite the Bush administration's policies—ignored long-term risks from conservative judicial appointments, which could entrench restrictions for decades. They further contended he inadequately addressed media consolidation's role in homogenizing discourse, as highlighted by scholars like , and corporate extensions of terms (from 28 years to life plus 70 years under laws like the 1998 Act), which curtailed cultural expression. These debates underscored tensions between Lewis's faith in doctrinal resilience and calls for confronting institutional barriers to pluralism.

References

  1. https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/opinion/lewis/bio_lewis.html
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  83. https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/fourteen-little-words/
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