Nazis Given Another Court Victory

Federal Judge Bemard Decker today ruled unconstitutional a series of village ordinances in Skokie, III. intended to bar a planned march by swastika-wearing American Nazis through that heavily Jewish-populated suburb of Chicago. His ruling was the latest legal victory for the Nazis in an on-going court battle with local authorities and Jewish and other residents of Skokie.

The ordinances overturned by Judge Decker banned the wearing of military-style uniforms in marches of a demonstrative nature and the dissemination of “offensive material” such as hate literature. They also required heavy insurance for damages that might result from demonstrations. An estimated 50,000 Jews live in Skokie, some 7000 of them survivors of Nazi death camps.

So far, Illinois courts have been unanimous in upholding the constitutional right of the Nazis to march in Skokie. The village authorities have pledged to carry the case to the Supreme Court. The Nazis’ legal right to march in their regalia has been defended by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on grounds that however abhorrent their cause, to ban the march would be an abridgement of the constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech and assembly. Opponents have argued that march is intended as a deliberate provocation and therefore is not protected by the Constitution.

HOPES FOR LEGAL MEANS TO BLOCK MARCH

Raymond Epstein, chairman of the Public Affairs Committee (PAC) of the Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago, said he hoped the Village of Skokie and others seeking legal remedies to halt the proposed march by the Nazis would “pursue every legal means to block this perversion of the rights of free speech. It would be a monstrous travesty for the courts of this land to rule that an obscene spectacle should be held under the guise of our First Amendment freedom which we of the Jewish community hold especially dear.”

“Should all legal means fail,” Epstein added, “the Jewish community would cooperate fully with the Village of Skokie and peoples of other faiths in framing a non-violent response, more in keeping with what our founding fathers had in mind in drafting the Bill of Rights.”

Sol Goldstein, of Skokie, a Holocaust survivor and chairman of the PAC committee on individual liberty and Jewish security, who initiated a private suit which was rejected by the Illinois Supreme Court, seeking a permanent injunction against the proposed march, will make a second bid for the injunction by filing in the State Supreme Court tomorrow.

Goldstein affirmed Epstein’s stand, declaring that “the Village of Skokie should do everything in its power to protect the safety and welfare of its residents.” He said he “welcomed the expression of solidarity” with the Holocaust survivors made yesterday by Gov. James B. Thompson. Goldstein said the Governor’s “interest and concern is one of many important indications that this march has become an issue for all American. We certainly shall call upon the Governor’s good offices in framing our response to the march, in the event of that unfortunate necessity.”

In addition to public statements made yesterday by Thompson opposing the march, Goldstein received a letter from the Governor on Tuesday expressing his feeling that “the survivors of the Holocaust and Jews the world over should not be subjected to such a disgusting display as that march.” The Governor also said in his letter that he would join the Skokie community and Jews in carrying out their responsibilities in connection with the Nazi march.