The First amendment in a free society

"The articles in this compilation discuss a number of . . . cases that illustrate, collectively, just how difficult it is to agree on what the First Amendment protects and what it does not. The matter is complicated by the fact the First Amendment is often invoked to protect kinds of activity for which many . . . people in this country have a strong distaste. The distribution of obscene material is one such activity, and it is the subject of the articles in Chapter 1. . . . Chapter 2 deals briefly with freedom of religion . . . also covers several cases on freedom of the press . . . Chapter 3 pursues the matter of freedom of the press by focusing on a controversial and possibly historic case: that of the New York Times reporter Myron Abba Farber, who went to jail for refusing to turn over to a court in a first-degree murder trial his notes made during the course's original investigation. Chapter 4, on the right of assembly . . . [presents] articles on the bitter argument in Illinois over whether American Nazis could hold a parade on the Fourth of July in the heavily Jewish city of Skokie."--Preface.