Defending My Enemy: Skokie and the Legacy of Free Speech in America

At the heart of Trump's blizzard of chaotic, cruel, and corrupt attacks on our democracy is one of the most turbulent, disruptive, and consequential assaults on freedom of speech in American history. Trump and his obedient underlings have enlisted the full force of the federal government’s overwhelming criminal, civil, administrative, immigration, and national security apparatus to illegally crush protest, dissent, and free speech.

On an unprecedented scale, directly and indirectly, Trump is violating the First Amendment rights of every person in the United States to express and receive information and ideas free of government censorship. He is going after the Voice of America, the Smithsonian Museum, the Associated Press, NPR, PBS, ABC, CBS, the Library of Congress, local public libraries, foreign and domestic students, immigrants, colleges and universities, elected officials, law firms, and judges. And by silencing all of these voices, he is denying the constitutional right of every American to hear what those voices have to say.

The United States is in a constitutional crisis. It is imperative that we vigorously defend our rights. The reissuance of the seminal book Defending My Enemy: Skokie and the Legacy of Free Speech in America by Aryeh Neier could not have come at a better time to remind us of the importance of defending the essential freedom upon which all others depend – freedom of speech.

Defending My Enemy was originally published in 1979. At that time Neier was the national executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, which agreed to represent the Nazis in the Skokie controversy. Defending My Enemy was a brave book when it was originally published, and almost 50 years later it remains an indispensable guide to help us navigate today’s convulsive debates over free speech on American campuses and throughout our society.

This edition of Defending My Enemy is enhanced by a new foreword by Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, a new afterword by Nadine Strossen, president of the ACLU from 1991 to 2008, and an extensive new chapter by Neier himself offering his views on the contemporary challenges facing free speech in America. In addition to previously serving as Executive Director of the ACLU, Neier co-founded Human Rights Watch, and is President Emeritus of the Open Society Foundations, where he remains active in their work. He has written seven books and over three hundred articles and op-eds on civil and human rights.

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National Guard Occupy The Streets Of DC

Soldiers in uniform are still patrolling the streets of Washington, D.C. They’re not just on guard duty — they’ve been spotted picking up trash, spreading mulch, and even posing with tourists. And now their mission has been extended indefinitely. The Army has ordered nearly a thousand National Guard members to remain on active duty through November 30, 2025. Donald Trump could end it sooner, or push it even further, but for now the deployment is open-ended. Another 1,300 Guard troops from states like Louisiana and Ohio are also staying through December.

The official line is they are tackling “out of control” crime. But many residents and local officials see something else: a military force filling civic space, performing chores that look more like public relations than public safety. Ward 1 Commissioner Peter Wood called the outreach “uncomfortable and concerning,” stressing that soldiers patrolling civilian neighborhoods creates more fear than comfort.

This isn’t just about crime or clean-up crews — it’s about what kind of country we want to be when soldiers become part of daily civic life.

Guest – Attorney Mara Verheyden-Hilliard from the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund and the Center for Protest Law and Litigation in Washington, DC. Mara is one of the nation’s leading litigators defending protesters and winning numerous reforms in police practices at mass assemblies and demonstrations.