Even a conservative majority that has a robust view of presidential power and granted him broad immunity from criminal prosecution might balk at some of what the president wants to do.

More than six decades after the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, Enrich makes a compelling and alarming case that the legal protections that undergird the free press in this country are on much shakier ground than we may realize.

The real legacy of the case, scholars say, is not its protection of former presidents from prosecution but its expansive understanding of presidential power.