Presidents and civil liberties from Wilson to Obama: a story of poor custodians

570 Pages·2014·7.004 MB·English

by  Walker, Samuel

Presidents and Civil liberties from Wilson to obama
This book is a history of the civil liberties records of American presidents from
Woodrow Wilson to Barack Obama. It examines the full range of civil liber-
ties issues: First Amendment rights of freedom of speech, press, and assem-
bly; due process; equal protection, including racial justice, women’s rights,
and lesbian and gay rights; privacy rights, including reproductive freedom;
and national security issues. The book argues that presidents have not pro-
tected or advanced civil liberties, and that several have perpetrated some
of the worst violations. Some Democratic presidents (Woodrow Wilson and
Franklin D. Roosevelt), moreover, have violated civil liberties as badly as some
Republican presidents (Richard Nixon and George W. Bush). This is the first
book to examine the full civil liberties record of each president, allowing us
to place a president’s record on civil rights, for example, in the context of his
record on national security issues and to compare the performance of all the
presidents covered on particular issues.
Samuel Walker is Professor Emeritus of Criminal Justice at the University of
Nebraska at Omaha. He is author of thirteen books on civil liberties, criminal
justice, and policing. They include In Defense of American Liberties: A History
of the ACLU (1990), Hate Speech (1994), and Sense and Nonsense about Crime
(7th ed., 2012). He is a frequent commentator on criminal justice and police
issues in the national news media and has appeared on CNN, NBC, NPR, PBS
Frontline, and the History Channel. He has served as a consultant to the U.S.
Justice Department and local community groups on police problems.

Presidents and Civil

liberties from Wilson
to obama
A Story of Poor CuStodiAnS
Samuel Walker
University of nebraska at omaha
cambridge university press
Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town,
Singapore, São Paulo, Delhi, Mexico City
Cambridge University Press
32 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10013-2473, USA
www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781107016606
© Samuel Walker 2012
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without the written
permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 2012
Printed in the United States of America
A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication data
Walker, Samuel, 1942–
Presidents and civil liberties from Wilson to Obama : a story of poor
custodians / Samuel Walker.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-107-01660-6 (hardback)
1. Presidents – United States. 2. Civil rights – United States. 3. Executive
power – United States. I. Title.
KF5053.W35 2012
342.7308′5–dc23 2011048914
ISBN 978-1-107-01660-6 Hardback
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs
for external or third-party Internet Web sites referred to in this publication and does not
guarantee that any content on such Web sites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
To
Elizabeth Emlen Walker
January 13, 1913–June 15, 2011
My mother was born two months before the events in this book
begin, and she died almost exactly a year before it was published.
She had a long and happy life, never complaining, even though at
times we certainly gave her plenty of reason to do so. The summer
before her death, at age ninety-seven, she was working in the
garden at the assisted living center. She worked in a garden almost
every day of her adult life. Everyone should tend his or her own
chosen garden with the same determination and contentment.

Contents

Preface page xiii
Acknowledgments xv
List of Abbreviations xix
1. Introduction: Presidents and Civil Liberties 1
Scenes from the White House 1
Poor Custodians of American Liberties 2
Presidents and America’s Core Values 2
PART I. The eARly yeARS
2. Woodrow Wilson and the Suppression of Civil Liberties
in World War I 9
“Such Creatures . . . Must Be Crushed Out” 9
Wilson, Progressivism, and Civil Liberties 9
War and Repression Begin, 1917 10
Wilson’s Role in the Repression 17
The Mind of the Progressive Reformer 20
The Final Orgy: The Red Scare, 1919–1920 30
An Ominous Legacy: Origins of the National Security State 32
Moving Backward on Race 34
A Reluctant Path to Women’s Suffrage 39
Brandeis to the Supreme Court 42
End of a Presidency – Dawn of the Civil Liberties Era 43
3. Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover: Civil Liberties in the
Wilderness 47
Civil Liberties in a Changing America 47
The Red Scare “Hangover” 49
Amnesty for the Victims of Wartime Prosecutions 51
Political Spying Continues 52
Keeping Dangerous Ideas out of the United States 55
A National Campaign for Racial Justice 57
Alice Paul, the ERA, and a New Direction for Women’s Rights 63
Sex and Censorship: The Post Office and the Customs Bureau 65
Attacking the First Amendment Rights of Organized Labor 67
Lawless Policing: Prohibition Enforcement 70
vii
viii Contents
Freedom to Teach: The Scopes Case 73
Straws in the Wind: The Supreme Court Shifts 75
End of the Republican Era 76
4. Franklin D. Roosevelt: The Mixed Legacy of a Strong President 79
“The Greatest Violation of Civil Liberties in American History” 79
The Japanese-American Tragedy: FDR Decides 80
FDR, the Constitution, and Presidential Power 85
The Tragedy Unfolds 87
The Rights of Working People: A Casual Indifference 90
Federal Protection for Civil Rights: Origins of the Civil
Rights Division 93
Unleashing FBI Spying: The Permanent National Security State 95
Troubling Claims of Presidential Power 101
A March on Washington? FDR Confronts the Civil Rights
Movement 104
Freedom of Speech in Peace and War 112
Creating the Roosevelt Court 117
President Roosevelt versus the Roosevelt Years 123
PART II. CIvIl lIbeRTIeS In The Cold WAR And
CIvIl RIghTS eRAS
5. Harry Truman: Courage and Contradictions 127
Cold War Contradictions 127
Truman and Civil Liberties 127
Anti-communism at Home and Abroad 128
The Loyalty Program in Operation 131
Attacking the Communist Party and “Dangerous” Ideas 133
Truman, J. Edgar Hoover, and the FBI 135
The Rise of Government Secrecy – and Challenges 137
McCarthyism Arrives 138
Unmatched Political Courage: Truman and Civil Rights 141
Korea: Three Crucial Decisions on Presidential Power 148
A Divisive Church-State Controversy 155
Last Gasp (for a While) for the ERA 157
Mediocrity on the Supreme Court 159
The Ambiguity of Strong Presidential Leadership 160
6. Dwight D. Eisenhower: A Failure of Presidential Leadership 163
“My Biggest Mistake” 163
Silence on Joe McCarthy 163
Civil Rights: A Leadership Failure 167
Ike, Communism, and Domestic Security 183
Secrecy, Executive Privilege, and the CIA 187
A Weak Record on Women’s Issues 193
Creating the Warren Court 193
The End of the Fifties 199