Swastikas in Skokie: The Paradox of Free Speech

Abstract

First Amendment freedoms often collide with individual sensibilities. The conflict that results creates an impulse to restrict those liberties. In the 1970s a group of neo-Nazis sought the right of free expression in a community heavily populated by Jews and Holocaust survivors. To the citizens of Skokie, Illinois a seemingly limitless First Amendment became an intolerable burden. Decades later, the dilemmas that arose from the Skokie controversy continue to resound within the free speech arena.