Page 10 - Delaware Lawyer - Fall 2019

FEATURE
Rodney A. Smolla
Confessions
Reassessing First Amendment law amid a resurgence of white supremacy
As I was completing this article, I had just put the final touches on a new book. It is entitled Confessions of a Free Speech Lawyer: Charlottesville and the Politics of Hate, to be published by the Cornell University Press.
8 DELAWARE LAWYER FALL 2019
The violent confrontations between white nationalist “alt-right” suprema- cists and liberal counter-protesting progressives in the Charlottesville sum- mer of 2017 were a defining moment in American political, cultural and constitu- tional history. They were also defining in my own struggles to explore and evolve my identity as a constitutional lawyer. The events took place in two venues: the public streets, sidewalks and parks of Charlottes- ville, and the gracious confines of “Mr. Jef- ferson’s University,” the storied grounds of the University of Virginia. This arti- cle, like the accompanying articles of my three friends and colleagues, Nadine Stros- sen, Alexander Tsesis and Alan Garfield, traverse both the grounds of our Ameri- can public squares and our American public and private universities. There is a lot of ground to cover, public and personal.
‘Is This What Freedom Means?’
My wife Anna Smolla and I are in our home in Delaware on the night of August 11, 2017. We watch CNN Breaking News footage of a torchlight parade of white supremacists across the storied lawn and “Academical Village” of the University of Virginia. Anna was born in Siberia. She emigrated from Russia to America in search of religious freedom. Watching the images of racists conjuring the marches of The Hitler Youth, she asks me if this is what freedom means.
Only one week before these horrific events, I had been approached by the Vir- ginia ACLU, asking that I consider join- ing the legal team representing the Unite the Right supremacists in Charlottesville. The overture made sense. I am a free speech litigator and scholar. I had previ- ously represented the Ku Klux Klan and
of a Free Speech Lawyer