The American Jewish Congress hailed as “a major victory for civil liberties” a unanimous decision by the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday upholding the right of Hebrew school students to collect signatures at a California shopping center protesting the United Nations anti-Zionist resolution.
The A JCongress had filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of the public’s right to circulate petitions or otherwise peacefully exercise their rights of free speech in privately owned shopping centers. The case — Pruneyard Shopping Center vs. Robbins — arose in San Jose, California, when Jewish students at Temple Emanu El, as part of a class project, sought to collect signatures for a petition opposing the UN resolution that condemned Zionism as a form of racism.
Commenting on the decision, Prof. Abraham 5. Goldstein of Yale Law School, chairman of the Commission on Law and Social Action of the American Jewish Congress, declared:
“The unanimous decision of the high court is a major victory for civil liberties. A shopping center in contemporary California is the modern equivalent of the Greek agora. We are gratified that the Supreme Court has ruled that First Amendment guarantees must be afforded at these modern day public forums.”
The American Jewish Congress brief, in which the Synagogue Council of America joined, was written by Nathon Z. Dershowitz, director of the American Jewish Congress Commission on Law and Social Action, and staff attorneys Victoria B. Eiger and Mark Stern.
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