ACLU 1978: Why The American Civil Liberties Union Defends Free Speech for Racists and Totalitarians

In 1978, the American Civil Liberties Union created a pamphlet to explain why the organization defends the free speech of “Nazis, KKK members, and others who advocate racist or totalitarian doctrines.”

Here are some key excerpts:

[W]e believe that the constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech and press would be meaningless if the government could pick and choose the persons to whom they apply. The ACLU’s responsibility-since its founding in 1920-has been to make sure that all are free to speak, no matter what their ideas.

[ . . . ]

ACLU defense is needed when the views of some people are unpopular and the government interferes with their ability to express their views peacefully. In times and places where the views of civil rights activists, pacifists, religious and political dissenters, labor organizers and others have been unpopular, the ACLU has insisted on their right to speak.

[. . . ]

Doesn’t providing racists and totalitarians with a legal defense give publicity to their cause and their ideas that they would otherwise not receive?

It is the attempts by communities to prevent such people from expressing themselves that gives them the press coverage they would ordinarily not receive. If providing a legal defense for their constitutional rights results in a continuation of the publicity, that is an unavoidable consequence of the events that were set in motion by the original denial of First Amendment guarantees. A fact that seems little understood by those who take a restrictive view toward speech they do not like is that attempts at suppression ordinarily increase public interest in the ideas they are trying to stamp out.

[ . . . ]

[F]irst among the freedoms we are dedicated to defending are those of speech, press and assembly, for they are the bedrock on which all other rights rest. We are involved in only five or six cases each year to defend free speech for racists or totalitarians. Even though this is only a tiny fraction of the ACLU’s work, we think it is important. We cannot remain faithful to the First Amendment by turning our backs when it is put to its severest test — the right to freedom of speech for those whose views we despise the most.

Read the full pamphlet here.