About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

68 Notre Dame L. Rev. 673 (1992-1993)
Resolving the Hate Crimes/Hate Speech Paradox; Punishing Bias Crimes and Protecting Racist Speech

handle is hein.journals/tndl68 and id is 681 raw text is: Resolving the Hate Crimes/Hate Speech Paradox: Punishing Bias Crimes and Protecting Racist Speech Frederick M. Lawrence* Despise evil and ungodliness, but not men of ungodliness or evil. These, understand.' Not since the Nazis threatened to march in Skokie,2 have we focused so much on the hate crimes/hate speech paradox.- How * Associate Professor of Law, Boston University. BA, Williams College; J.D., Yale Law School. My thanks to Jack Beermann, Ron Cass, Alan Feld, and Pnina Lahav for their help on this projeqct. I am also grateful to the participants of the Boston University School of Law Faculty Workshop to whom an earlier version of this Article was pre- sented. The comments received during and subsequent to that workshop presentation were extremely helpful. I am particularly grateful to Joe Brodley, Avi Soifer, and Ken Simons for their careful reading of this Article and their insightful comments. I would also like to acknowledge the contributions of the members of my Civil Rights Crimes seminar in the fall of 1992. My appreciation as well to Kelly McEnaney for her diligent research and fine editorial assistance. Finally, I wish to acknowledge the support for this project provided by a Boston University School of Law Summer Research grant. 1 WnflAM SAROYAN, THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE xxvii (1941). 2 The Skokie cases consisted of two cases arising out of the attempt by the Nazi National Socialist Party of America to hold a march in the predominantly Jewish Chicago suburb of Skokie, Illinois in 1977 and 1978. The first case involved a state court injunc- tion prohibiting the Nazi party from holding the march or exhibiting Nazi symbols or other materials that would promote hatred of Jews. An Illinois appellate court refused to stay the injunction and the United States Supreme Court, per curiam, by a 5-4 vote, reversed the denial of the stay and remanded the case to the Illinois state courts for further proceedings. National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie, 432 U.S. 43 (1977). On remand, the injunction was modified by an appellate court, 366 N.E.2d 347 (Ill. App. Ct. 1977), and ultimately fully vacated by the Illinois Supreme Court. 373 N.E.2d 21 (Ill. 1978). The second Skokie case involved three ordinances enacted by. the village of Skokie in May, 1977. The ordinances, which established a permit system for assemblies of more than fifty persons, required applicants to obtain insurance in the amount of $350,000 and barred permits for assemblies that would, inter alla, incite hatred of an ethnic, reli- gious, or racial group. Each ordinance, was struck down as unconstitutional. Collin v. Smith, 447 F. Supp. 676 (N.D. Ill.), aftd, 578 F.2d 1197 (7th Cir.), cer. denied, 439 U.S. 916 (1978). See generally DONALD A. DowNs, NAZIS IN SKOICIE: FREEDOM, COMMuNrY, AND THE FIRST AMENDMENT (1985); JAMES L GIBSON & RiCHARD D. BINGHAM, CIVIL LIBERTIES AND NAZIS: THE SKOKIE FREE SPEECH CONTROVERSY (1985); DAvID HAMLIN, THE NAZI SKOKIE CONF CT: A CIVIL LIBRTIES BATLE (1981). 3 In this Article, I refer to hate crimes as bias crimes and to hate speech as racist speech. I prefer these terms because hate says too much and too little about

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most