| Nazis in Skokie: Freedom, Community, and the First Amendment Contributor(s): Downs, Donald Alexander (Author) |
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ISBN: 0268014620 ISBN-13: 9780268014629 Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press OUR PRICE: $28.71 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: February 1986 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | Jewish - General - Political Science | Political Ideologies - Democracy - Law | Legal History |
| Dewey: 322.440 |
| LCCN: 84040294 |
| Series: Notre Dame Studies in Law and Contemporary Issues |
| Physical Information: 0.51" H x 6" W x 9" (0.72 lbs) 240 pages |
| Themes: - Ethnic Orientation - Jewish |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: In 1977, a Chicago-based Nazi group announced its plans to demonstrate in Skokie, Illinois, the home of hundreds of Holocaust survivors. The shocked survivor community rose in protest and the issue went to court, with the ACLU defending the Nazis' right to free speech. The court ruled in the Nazis' favor. According to the "content neutrality doctrine" governing First Amendment jurisprudence, the Nazis' insults and villifications were "neutral"--not the issue, as far as the law was concerned. But to Downs, they are at issue. In Nazis in Skokie he challenges the doctrine of "content neutrality" and presents an argument for the minimal abridgment of free speech when that speech in intentionally harmful. Draawing on his interviews with participants in the conflict, Downs combines detailed social history with informed legal interpretation in a provocative examination of an abiding tension between individual freedom and community integrity, and between procedural and substantive justice. |
Contributor Bio(s): Downs, Donald Alexander: - Donald Downs is the Alexander Meiklejohn Professor of Political Science, Law, and Journalism at UW-Madison, and the Glenn B. and Cleone Orr Hawkins Professor of Political Science at the University. He is also the director and co-founder of the University's Wisconsin Center for the Study of Liberal Democracy (2007-present). |