(Jewish Group) The Story of the Jewish Lawyer Who Defended the Free Speech Rights of Nazis
It was a call he didn't expect, let alone want, back on April 27, 1977. At the time, David Goldberger was a lawyer for the Illinois chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and was developing broad expertise in the rights of people to engage in protests on public property and in public spaces.
He had helped the Communist Party fight McCarthy-era statutes to get on the ballot in Illinois and anti-Vietnam-War activists to fight the never-ending legal roadblocks the city of Chicago deployed to stop protesters from assembling in the city's public spaces. In short, he was a rising First Amendment star and defender.
"The ACLU represented both sides and not the sides we preferred," Goldberger told Newsweek. "That's the best way to educate the public about the importance of fairness, equality and neutral principles of law."
The call that would forever change Goldberger's life, put his belief in free speech to the test and lead to a historic First Amendment ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court came from Frank Collin, the leader of the Chicago-based National Socialist Party of America (NSPA). "He wanted me to represent him because he'd just been sued by the village of Skokie seeking an injunction to prevent him from holding an assembly in the village the following Saturday," Goldberger said. "It was Tuesday evening, and the hearing was the next morning."
Neo-Nazi leader Frank Collin announces that he is calling off his group’s march in the heavily Jewish suburb of Skokie, Illinois, in 1978. Collin said there was no need to march in Skokie because the Nazis had achieved their First Amendment free speech rights by being allowed to demonstrate in Chicago's Marquette Park.
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