Criminal Sanctions for Group Libel: Feasibility and Constitutionality

Abstract

callousness to the rights of individuals and minorities leads to barbarism and the destruction of the essential values of civilized life." ' ] When Joseph Beauharnais, president of the "White Circle League of America," recently published and had publicly exhibited in Chicago matter portraying Negroes as depraved, criminal, unchaste, and lacking in virtue, he was perhaps unaware of the existence of an Illinois group libel statute 2 under which he might be-and was-convicted. Probably more to his dismay, however, was the overruling by the Illinois Supreme Court of his claim of immunity under the free speech and press shields of the United States and Illinois Constitutions. 3 The Illinois Court rejected as having no conclusive bearing upon the question of the constitutionality of the Illinois statute the cases of Thornhill v. Alabama, 4 Terminiello v. City of Chicago, 5 and Near v. Minnesota. 6 In an opinion by Fulton, J., the Court proceeded: