In legal history, parts of the Constitution can have their own life stories.

Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times columnist Anthony Lewis spoke at the Law School last night to promote his new book, “Freedom For the Thought That We Hate: A Biography of the First Amendment.” Lewis structured his remarks as a series of anecdotes, recounting the history of how freedom of speech evolved from the sedition acts of World War I through the publishing of the Pentagon Papers in the 1970s and up to the present day.

“He has contributed to the legal imagination of many people who come through institutions like this,” said Law Prof. Lawrence Lessig, who moderated the session. “I think he’s the person most responsible for the idealistic law student that law professors love to have.”

Lewis discussed the ins and outs of many crucial Supreme Court decisions in the 20th century.

“What we currently enjoy as freedom of speech in this country did not come from the 14 words of the first amendment,” Lewis said. “It came from judicial interpretations that were long in coming, and that had the most extraordinary effect. I think the average American thinks of freedom of speech as a talisman that has always been there and always been enforced, but it’s entirely the result of creative and bold judges.”

Lewis also explained the origin of his book’s title, referring back to his time covering the Supreme Court for The New York Times.

“Sometime around 1960, I was invited to Justice Frankfurter’s office for a chat,” Lewis said. “Some newspaper had criticized him as insufficiently liberal. He said, ‘I’ll show you liberal!’”

Lewis recounted how Justice Frankfurter handed him a report from Schwimmer v. Lewis, a 1929 case in which the Supreme Court denied citizenship to a pacifist who refused to promise that she would take up arms for the national defense. In a dissenting opinion, Justice Holmes wrote that “some of her answers might excite popular prejudice, but if there is any principle of the Constitution that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other it is the principle of free thought — not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought that we hate.”

“And as I read, I felt the hair rise on the back of my neck,” Lewis said. “There is no other judge anywhere that would have written that at that time.”

Lewis also focused on the history of freedom of speech for the press.

“James Madison said that ‘the press must be free to canvas the merits and measures of elected men,’” Lewis said. “A key duty of the press is disclosing what the government is up to and holding it accountable.”

As for the current state of freedom of speech, Lewis saw cause for optimism.

“On the whole, the first amendment is not a target for the majority that controls the Supreme Court today,” he said. “An extraordinary part of the last 25 years is that the first amendment has won such broad support.”

He added, “People across the political spectrum now say, ‘We believe in free speech.’”