This article is an electronic version of an article originally published in Cultic Studies Journal, 1987, Volume 4, Number 1, pages 1-17. Please keep in mind that the pagination of this electronic reprint differs from that of the bound volume. This fact could affect how you enter bibliographic information in papers that you may write.

Some Rigors of Our Times: The First Amendment and Real Life and Death - One ACLU Board Member Looks at Guyana, Nazis, and Pornography*

Fay Stender

Abstract

The American Civil Liberties Union should rethink and widen its view of cults, Nazis, and pornography. It should abjure its purist ideological approach to the First Amendment issues raised by these phenomena because this obscures the factual base upon which the Union might restructure its position and actions. Ironically, ACLU defense of free speech in these matters actually defends the damaging consequences of cult activities, anti-Semitism, and the exploitation of women while paving the way for the transformation and vulgarization of the society we seek to protect with the First Amendment.

Full text available through ICSA E-Library.

*Also in the E-Library see comments on this article by George Driesen, Esq. and Peter Georgiades, Esq.