Hague v. CIO and Free Speech for Radicals in the American Liberal Mainstream.

This paper will examine the struggle by labor groups and the American Civil Liberties Union against the repressive policies of Jersey City Mayor Frank Hague. Well known for the corruption and impenetrability of his political machine, Hague sought to attract industry to Jersey City during the 1930s by shutting down all picketing, meetings, and leafleting on behalf of organized labor. A series of conflicts between his administration and the ACLU culminated in the Supreme Court's 1939 speech-protective decision in Hague v. CIO. Although Boss Hague had a strong popular following within and outside Jersey Cityâ??and many Americans were as hostile toward radicalism in the mid-1930s as they had been during World War Iâ??the Court's decision garnered significant public support. The paper will argue that the events leading up to Hague fundamentally influenced the articulation and reception of free speech advocacy during the 1930s. By the time Hague was decided, civil libertarians had convinced the public that some modes of censorship (in the realms of academic freedom, sex education, and literature, for example) were more damaging than edifying. On the whole, however, they had failed to translate those lessons into the political realm. After Hague, for the first time, many patriotic Americans wholeheartedly endorsed the judicial protection of radical speech. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]