Figures of Speech: First Amendment Heroes and Villains

230 Pages·2010·0.87 MB·English

by  William Bennett Turner (Foreword by Anthony Lewis)

FIGURES OF
SPEECH
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FIGURES OF
SPEECH
FIRST AMENDMENT
HEROES AND VILLAINS
WILLIAM BENNETT TURNER
Foreword by Anthony Lewis
Figures of Speech: First Amendment Heroes and Villains
Copyright © 2010 by William Bennett Turner
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First Edition
Paperback Print eidtion, ISBN 978-1-93622-703-7 (alk. paper)
PDF e-book ISBN 978-1-60994-463-6
IDPF e-book ISBN 978-1-60994-465-0
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2011-1
Production management: BookMatters
Book design: BookMatters
Cover design: Charles Kreloff
For Molly and Andy, who always
wanted to know more than I knew,
and for Micki, who saved my life
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CONTENTS
Foreword: Anthony Lewis ix
Introduction 1
1 Yetta Stromberg 17
2 Jehovah’s Witnesses 27
3 Dannie Martin 45
4 Raymond Procunier and Robert H. Schnacke 59
5 Earl Caldwell 83
6 Richard Hongisto 99
7 Clarence Brandenburg 121
8 Larry Flynt 133
9 Clinton Fein and the ACLU 155
Afterword 183
Notes 193
Index 205
Acknowledgments 213
About the Author 215
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FOREWORD
The First Amendment has become the hottest battlefront of
American constitutional law. Libel, campaign spending, pub-
lication of government secrets, hateful speech: these and a
dozen other subjects have tested the amendment’s command
that “Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of
speech, or of the press.” The very words “First Amendment”
have become a rallying cry for the press and other interests
arguing that their freedom outweighs other public concerns.
As a result of First Amendment litigation, activities commonly
regulated or prohibited in other democracies—denunciation of
religious groups, leaks of military records, political advertis-
ing—are now protected by the Constitution.
The literature of the First Amendment has grown apace.
Books on interpretation of the fourteen words in its speech and
press clauses are numerous; I have added to the pile myself. But
this book is different. It does not have the smell of the lamp,
of theorizing at a distance. It is a report from the front lines.
Here are men and women whose often eccentric lives led
to great courtroom tests of freedom: Yetta Stromberg, who
ix