"In 1977, a neo-Nazi group called the National Socialist Party of America applied for a permit to march through Skokie, Illinois, a predominantly Jewish, Chicago suburb. They wanted to wear brown shirts with swastika armbands and wave signs demanding "free speech for white people." The village refused the permit. The group sued, and it ignited a national debate over the First Amendment that may sound familiar today. Does the constitutional right to free speech protect offensive, even hateful speech? Can words cause real damage?"
"Skokie's attorneys argued that seeing the swastika and hearing chants of "Sieg Heil" on their streets would amount to a physical attack on the hundreds of Holocaust survivors who lived in Skokie. I remember speaking with Magda Brown over iced tea on her porch. She'd been a teenager in Hungary when the Nazi-aligned government began making anti-Jewish laws. She survived Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Her family was executed."
In 1977 the National Socialist Party of America sought a permit to march through Skokie, Illinois, a predominantly Jewish Chicago suburb, intending to wear brown shirts, swastika armbands, and carry signs reading "free speech for white people." The village denied the permit and the group sued, raising a national debate over whether the First Amendment protects offensive and hateful speech. Skokie's attorneys argued that swastikas and chants would constitute a physical attack on Holocaust survivors. ACLU lawyer David Goldberger argued for the First Amendment in the Supreme Court. The courts ruled the demonstration was protected and the rally took place in Chicago.
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