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FIRST AMENDMENT - Almost 50 years ago, a band of neo-Nazis declared their intention to stage a demonstration in Skokie, Illinois, a community with a sizable Holocaust survivor population. The confrontation which resulted – the ACLU on one side defending the 1st Amendment, the Village of Skokie, seeking to prevent the demonstration, on the other – grew into one of the most heated and contentious constitutional battles of the century.
That case ultimately produced a host of rulings affirming the right to air highly unpopular and deeply offensive ideas. The storm it generated has long been calm, but the case remains most relevant. It has recently been cited by media including The New Yorker, politicians including Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker and the current national ACLU CEO. The gist of the case – Nazis confronting the victims of Nazism – remains intriguing, but it is the underlying principles which make Collin v. Skokie so desperately important today.
The First Amendment is the heart and soul of democracy. It protects the freedom, for the press and everyone else, to share facts and opinions so that we are all free to hear and support or reject an unfettered array of ideas, initiatives and programs.
The threat to that magnificent system of governance has never been more potent. That is because the current assault comes not from a rag-tag band of neo-Nazis but from the highest offices in the land. Elected and appointed officials from the White House down openly seek to trample the right to free speech, to stifle all – including journalists – who dare to expose or challenge them. This attack is so blatant and pervasive that it is all but impossible to keep track of it.
Through aggressive, combative free speech, we are being asked to believe that a free and fair election was “stolen,” that Ukraine started the war, that Canada is our enemy and Russia is our best friend. NATO is useless, immigrants are eating pets, the Justice Department is no more nor less than an instrument of vengeance, TQ must vanish from LGB-TQ and we should ignore our scientific and healthcare knowledge.
As the First Amendment dictates, those and several hundred more assertions certainly merit a full and vigorous debate. Yet even as they swear allegiance to free speech, the authors of those ideas are using their power to quell dissent. News organizations which seek to report the truth are punished; at least one highly reputable news operation has been banned from the White House, which now asserts its unbridled power to ban anyone else they wish to. Those who question initiatives which weaken our healthcare system, up to and including vaccines which have decades of proven success, are being stifled. It seems all too likely that those who sought to expose the facts about the January 6 assault on Congress will suffer. Those who participated in that assault have already been set free; punishment for those who tried to tell us the truth about that dark day cannot be far behind. Not even the arts are spared. The venerated Kennedy Center for the Arts has been turned into a venue whose only purpose seems to be providing entertainment which conforms to some unspoken guidelines demanding fealty to the President. Dissent in any form will not to be tolerated.
The true lesson of the Skokie litigation was not just that vile ideas are protected; it is that our very system of self-governance requires that ideas – all ideas – be available for our approval or dismissal. Desecrating reality while punishing those who dare to dissent and attacking professionals, experts, journalists and just plain citizens who speak out is a deadly blow to democracy.
Only the First Amendment itself can protect us. Bold, relentless opposition from voters and elected officials in Washington (whose oaths of office require their defense of democracy) can prevent the destruction of our unique and admirable invention. Free speech, backed by courage and honesty, is the only answer. Absent that, we may well discover that, after all, that tiny band of neo-Nazis decades ago were merely ahead of their time.
(David M. Hamlin writes novels; his short stories have appeared in the U.S., the U.K. and Canada. Throughout the Skokie controversy, he was Executive Director of the Illinois Division of ACLU.)
