When the Nazis Came to Skokie: Freedom for Speech We Hate (review)

Abstract

Book Reviews 105 broad to strict construction. Only Hamilton proposed a consistently expansive reading of the Constitution. Lynch argues that the Constitution was successful in meeting the demands of political life primarily because the nation adopted Hamilton's position. Lynch agrees with Hamilton that the "General Welfare" and "Necessary and Proper" clauses are grants of power entitling the government to enact whatever measures it deems advisable. Lynch's broad construction of the powers of the national government runs counter to common sense, however. If the authority of the government was unlimited , why did the Framers bother to enumerate the powers of the legislature in Article I? Lynch's views also contradict Marshall's decision in McCulloch v. Maryland. Marshall argued that the National Bank was a legitimate means to accomplish the ends enumerated in the Constitution. Marshall implies that some means would be inappropriate to those ends and that new ends could not be added to those enumerated in the document. While it is possible to disagree with Lynch's reading of the Constitution, his fine historical account shows that while discerning the intent of the Framers is often difficult , it is not impossible. Amid all the conflicting opinions judges can still give a "fair" reading of the Constitution. James F. Pontuso Center for the Study of the Constitution When the Nazis Came to Skokie: Freedom for Speech We Hate. By Phillippa Strum. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1999; pp. xii + 172. $25.00 cloth; $12.95 paper. This is a superb case study of the efforts in the 1970s by members of neo-Nazi National Socialist Party of America to demonstrate in Skokie, Illinois, a Chicago suburb of 70,000, with approximately 30,000 Jewish residents, 5,000 to 6,000 of whom are survivors of the Holocaust or family members of survivors. This book is a must for readers of Rhetoric & Public Affairs because it focuses an important attempt by the neo-Nazis to place their symbols of oppression, the storm-trooper uniforms and swastikas, before the residents of Skokie, only to be supported by the American Civil Liberties Union and the federal and higher-level state court system despite the opposition by residents and local political leaders. I learned about certain aspects of the politics of the Skokie case that I had not read in the scholarly literature . At the core of this book is an analysis of the nexus between rhetoric, politics, and public policy. It is about differences between law and politics, courts and elected bodies. It is about how citizens, elected officials, those seeking to demonstrate, and state and federal judges, seek to use their political power and the law to march or to stop a march. It also is the story about the impact of long-standing First Amendment principles which have become quite supportive of the right 106 Rhetoric & Public Affairs to demonstrate on public streets, albeit with minimal time, place, and manner restrictions, a position that is now being questioned by some legal scholars and social scientists with regard to hateful speech as it touches upon race, religion, ethnicity , and sexual orientation. I recommend this book for use in the following classes because it is a great teaching book: introductory courses in American politics, American history, civil liberties, or rhetoric and politics and advanced courses in rhetoric and public policy , American constitutional law, the First Amendment, civil liberties and civil rights, constitutional history, and law and social change, to name but a few. I think the book has wide utility for use in the classroom because it is so well written, informative, and introduces students to analyses found in several disciplines. In this short book, Professor Strum, a noted authority on constitutional law, history, and civil liberties, tells the story of the efforts of the Nazis to march in Skokie and the efforts of townspeople and public officials throughout the Chicago area to stop them, only to be thwarted by the application of First Amendment principles by federal courts and higher-level state courts. Pedagogically, the author brilliantly integrates the history and constitutional law of the right to march and the decline in the legality of the "hecklers' veto" on such...