ACLU's free-speech stand is questioned
It was 1934, and fascism was on the march not only in Europe but also in America. People who admired Adolf Hitler, who had taken power in Germany, formed Nazi organizations inside the United States.
The American Civil Liberties Union, represented by lawyers who were Jewish, faced an existential question: Should the freedoms it stood for since its founding in 1920 apply even to racist groups that would like nothing more than to strip them away?
Ultimately, after much internal dissent, the ACLU decided: Yes, the principles were what mattered most. The ACLU would stand up
