New Court Ruling on Nazi March

A Federal Court of Appeals ruling here last Thursday which ended a 45-day stay against a planned Nazi march in suburban Skokie left unaffected a Skokie village ordinance which will make it impossible for the tiny Nazi party to stage its march on April 20, Hitler’s birthday.

The 6-to-2 ruling by the full court for the Seventh Circuit here reversed an earlier decision by a three-judge panel of the court which had sustained an injunction granted March 17 by Judge Bernard M. Decker of the U.S. District Court in Chicago.

Decker ordered the temporary ban on the march to allow Skokie officials time to appeal his earlier ruling holding unconstitutional three Skokie ordinances passed last year when the Nazis first announced plans to march through Skokie, wearing Nazi uniforms and swastikas, home of 7000 Holocaust survivors.

A SKOKIE ORDINANCE NOT REJECTED

But a Skokie ordinance which the Circuit Court did not reject, requires that applications for a parade permit be made at least 30 days before a march. At the time Decker ordered his stay, the Nazis had not applied for a permit and have still not done so. Sources here said that no matter what happens to all the legal tests arising from the projected march, it cannot be held without the Nazis getting the required permit.

The contested ordinances banned groups that preached hatred or wore military style uniforms to march, or to pass out hate literature and also required any group planning to demonstrate to have $300,000 in liability insurance.

The appeals court said in its decision Thursday it would rule within 30 days on the Skokie village appeal against Decker’s ruling that the three ordinances violated constructional rights of free speech, freedom of assembly and equal protection under law. The court took note of the fact that the Nazis had not applied for a march permit and said that the stay “appears unnecessary.” The appeals court said it would hear all arguments in the case on April 14.