Priests of Our Democracy

January 7, 2013
Heins, a civil liberties lawyer and founder of the Free Expression Policy Project, tracks the collision of politics, academic freedom, free speech, and the Constitution in this dense, well-researched study. She opens with a formative University of Wisconsin Board of Regents statement issued in 1894 that “sang the praises of academic freedom as a necessary component” of the university and advocated for the “fearless” pursuit of truth in academia, but she quickly focuses in on the “American Red Scare” that began in the 1920s and extended on into the ’50s. In the course of her discussion, she examines governmental efforts to suppress the perceived threat of communism, the individuals who spearheaded those efforts, and the consequences of the destructive purges. Alongside her detailed and well-documented descriptions of the consequences of the chilling crackdowns on the academic world, Heins (Not In Front of the Children) demonstrates her legal acumen in insightful elucidations of the constitutional underpinnings and Supreme Court decisions that have come to define the rights of educators. She also addresses how these standards have fared after 9/11 and under the current Chief Justice, John Roberts—not well, she contends. This compelling study demonstrates that precedent does not guarantee indefinite protection, and every generation must fight for its freedoms. Photos.

April 15, 2013

Attorney Heins (Not in Front of the Children: "Indecency," Censorship, and the Innocence of Youth) traces the history of the 1967 U.S. Supreme Court case Keyishian v. Board of Regents, which held that states could not prohibit teachers from belonging to groups considered subversive (in this case, the Communist Party). The book benefits from the author's interviews with the teachers involved in the loyalty investigations in 1950s New York, her access to FBI files, and her use of contemporary political cartoons. Part 1 recalls how in the 1950s New York-area colleges purged their ranks of instructors considered radical. Part 2 describes the evolution of the Court's views regarding guilt by association (particularly as a way to disqualify teachers). Part 3 discusses how the Court connected academic freedom with the First Amendment to arrive at a decision that decreed teachers could not be required to take loyalty oaths or be fired for joining condemned groups. The book concludes by drawing lines between modern-day antiterrorism and 1950s anticommunism. VERDICT Well written, thorough, and full of personal details about the subjects, this is a telling account of teachers' struggle for academic freedom in America.--Harry Charles, St. Louis

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