Nazis in Skokie: Freedom, Community, and the First Amendment

by Donald Alexander Downs

Book Overview

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...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0268014620
• ISBN13: 9780268014629
• Release Date: March 1985
• Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.78 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

For anyone with an open mind

This is a great account of the struggle between the town of Skokie, Illinois and the Nazis whom the town wanted to prevent from holding a rally. It gives an inside look at all the major (and some minor) players in this dramatic sequence of events and the conflicts that many of them faced. The really great thing about this book, though, is that it's not the standard ACLU dogma of "we have to protect Nazis or the 1st Amendment is meaningless." Downs shows that there are genuine issues working against unfettered free speech. Interestingly enough, though, when I finished the book, I had come to feel more strongly than I did when I started that the town was wrong. Approach this book with an open mind and you may be surprised how you feel at the end.