Beyond the Burning Cross: A Landmark Case of Race, Censorship, and the First Amendment - Couverture souple

Cleary, Edward J. J.

 
9780679747031: Beyond the Burning Cross: A Landmark Case of Race, Censorship, and the First Amendment
Couverture souple
ISBN 10 : 0679747036 ISBN 13 : 9780679747031
Editeur : Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 1995

Synopsis

Does our abhorrence of racism allow us to ban certain forms of speech? This is the simple yet subversive question that Edward J. Cleary posed to the U.S. Supreme Court when, in 1991, he defended a white student who had burned a cross on a black family's lawn in St. Paul, Minnesota, violating a local ordinance against hate crimes. As a progressive, Cleary detested everything his client stood for. But in this compelling argued book he describes how he overturned the St. Paul ordinance—and convinced the Court to rule that "burning a cross is reprehensible. But St. Paul has sufficient means . . . to prevent such behavior without adding the First Amendment to the fire."

As Cleary retraces his path from St. Paul to the courtroom in Washington, he juxtaposes the stories of previous First Amendment cases with a personal account of the unlikely alliances (with both the A.C.L.U. and a group engaged in defending the Ku Klux Klan) and antagonisms that grew out of the case. Ultimately, he shows us why a law that bans expressions of racism is as dangerous as a law that bans protests against those expressions. In Beyond the Burning Cross, Leary has given us an unparalleled insider's report of a watershed event in constitutional history that is as absorbing as any thriller.

Les informations fournies dans la section « Synopsis » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.

Présentation de l'éditeur

Does our abhorrence of racism allow us to ban certain forms of speech? This is the simple yet subversive question that Edward J. Cleary posed to the U.S. Supreme Court when, in 1991, he defended a white student who had burned a cross on a black family's lawn in St. Paul, Minnesota, violating a local ordinance against hate crimes. As a progressive, Cleary detested everything his client stood for. But in this compelling argued book he describes how he overturned the St. Paul ordinance—and convinced the Court to rule that "burning a cross is reprehensible. But St. Paul has sufficient means . . . to prevent such behavior without adding the First Amendment to the fire."

As Cleary retraces his path from St. Paul to the courtroom in Washington, he juxtaposes the stories of previous First Amendment cases with a personal account of the unlikely alliances (with both the A.C.L.U. and a group engaged in defending the Ku Klux Klan) and antagonisms that grew out of the case. Ultimately, he shows us why a law that bans expressions of racism is as dangerous as a law that bans protests against those expressions. In Beyond the Burning Cross, Leary has given us an unparalleled insider's report of a watershed event in constitutional history that is as absorbing as any thriller.

Les informations fournies dans la section « A propos du livre » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.

Éditeur
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Date d'édition
1995
Langue
anglais
ISBN 10 
0679747036
ISBN 13 
9780679747031
Reliure
Broché
Nombre de pages
336
Coordonnées du fabricant
non disponible
Personne responsable
non disponible

Autres éditions populaires du même titre

9780679424604: Beyond the Burning Cross: The First Amendment and the Landmark R.A.V. Case

Edition présentée

ISBN 10 :  0679424601 ISBN 13 :  9780679424604
Editeur : Random House Inc, 1994
Couverture rigide