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But a breakaway splinter group called the Martin Luther King Jr. Movement Coalition obtained a parade permit for the area three weeks ago, forcing police to call up a 750-man protective patrol. When blacks showed up to march, however, police claimed a coalition leader had called and canceled the event the night before, prompting them to cancel the reinforcement call. Some blacks attempted to march anyway, but two leaders were quickly arrested and the march halted. Even so, angry white mobs went on a rampage. Perhaps hoping that tempers might cool with a change in the weather, the city then stated that "absolutely no more permits" would be issued for weekend demonstrations until September.
The confrontations cut to the heart of First Amendment rights, and to the very limits of their use—and abuse—in a divided society. Even so traditionally liberal a group as American Civil Liberties Union members are not unanimous. Attorney David Goldberger of the ACLU describes the Skokie and Chicago actions both as "flat-out violations of the First Amendment." Protesters picketed ACLU offices in New York two weeks ago because Union lawyers had been representing Nazis, and some members have quit as a result. Says Victor Rosenblum, Professor of Law at Northwestern: "I don't accept that the same points are involved in marches by civil rights groups seeking to assert basic constitutional rights, and the efforts of Nazis to tell Jews in Skokie they belong back in the oven."
Since the constitution protects the expression of even the most reprehensible ideas, most constitutional scholars do not agree. Insists University of Chicago Law Professor Geoffrey Stone: "One of the functions of the First Amendment is to provide a safety valve, to allow people a chance to blow off steam." Concerning Marquette Park, Northwestern University Law Professor Nathaniel Nathanson says flatly: "The coalition is clearly entitled to march, and the city is entitled to enough notice to prepare for it."
Cook County Judge Raymond Berg last week postponed ruling on Chicago's motion for a prevention order, and directed Chicago authorities to meet with black leaders and arrange for a march in Marquette Park. A grateful coalition leader, the Rev. A.I. Dunlap, said he would consider parading on a weekday, in order to reduce the potential for violent counterdemonstrations. Sounding very like his predecessor, Richard Daley, Chicago Mayor Michael Bilandic says "I don't think it has anything to do with color," and adds "marching has turned out to be a regressive type of thing."
The area's longstanding racial and political ferment is far from over. Even if authorities contain the black-white confrontation through the summer, the Skokie problem promises to reappear. Vows Nazi Collin: "Come hell or high water, Supreme Court or no Supreme Court, arrest or no arrest, violence or no violence, we will go into Skokie before the end of the year." While Collin's timing may be overly optimistic, his reading on the First Amendment may well be on target. Says one federal judge: "One day the Nazis are going to march in Skokie, as is their right.
That poses a terrible problem."