Press Clause and 3D Printing

Judges and scholars have argued that the “freedom . . . of the press” not only protects the press as an industry, but also protects the use of the printing press and its modern equivalents as a technology. This paper argues that the Constitution’s Framers intentionally used the phrase “the press,” rather than “journalism” or “communication” in the Press Clause, to protect technologies unknown at the time, which necessarily include the 3D printer—the modern equivalent of the printing press.