Michigan Law Review Volume 80 Issue 4 1982 The Skokie Legacy: Reflections on an "Easy Case" and Free Speech Theory Lee C. Bollinger University of Michigan Law School Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr Part of the Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons, and the First Amendment Commons Recommended Citation Lee C. Bollinger, The Skokie Legacy: Reflections on an "Easy Case" and Free Speech Theory, 80 MICH. L. REV. 617 (1982). Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol80/iss4/13 This Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Michigan Law Review at University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Michigan Law Review by an authorized editor of University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. THE SKOKIE LEGACY: REFLECTIONS ON AN "EASY CASE" AND FREE SPEECH THEORY Lee C. Bollinger* DEFENDING MY ENEMY: AMERICAN NAZIS, THE SKOKIE CASE, AND THE RISKS OF FREEDOM. By Aryeh Neier. New York: E.P. Dutton. 1979. Pp. 182. $9.95. l Few legal disputes in the last decade captured public attention with such dramatic force as that involving a small band of Nazis and the village of Skokie. For well over a year, the case was seldom out of the news and often thought to merit front page coverage. It all began in the spring of 1977 when Frank Collin, the leader of the Chicago-based National Socialist Party of America, requested a per mit to march in front of the Skokie village hall.