Long set out to tax the papers out of existence, but his scheme fell apart in the Supreme Court. In Grosjean v. American Press Co. (1936), the court affirmed that the newspapers had First Amendment rights, and that the tax grossly interfered with them. Good enough, but the newspapers were also corporations, and in upholding their rights against a vindictive autocrat, the court also took a big step toward normalizing corporate liberty rights.
