Robert Justin Goldstein

Once again a good summary of a particular legal issue in the Landmark Law Cases and American Society. The case itself is an excellent illustration of the pettiness of humans, as well as the abuse of power by the FBI. In particular, the attempt to deny Kutcher's disability pension was a particularly low point. While Goldstein does a reasonable job of referring to issues as they come up, the decision to split coverage of events occurring contemporaneously by whether they relate to employment and housing versus pension is a bit odd. They all stemmed from the root cause, Kutcher's membership in the Socialist Worker's Party. Why employment and housing were essentially told in one thread as opposed to being split is unclear. Still, the complex set of issues is handled well in the end.… (meer)

2937 Burning the Flag: The Great 1989-1990 American Flag Desecration Controversy, by Robert Justin Goldstein (read 21 Dec 1996) This tells the fascinating story of the flag-burning cases of Texas v. Johnson (1989) and U.S. v. Eichman (1990) and the firestorm that swept the country in 1989. The country was saved from a stupid constitutional amendment, but in 1995 the issue arose again and passed the House (only 120 votes against it) and only lost in the Senate by three votes. This is a superb book, and it really shows how ridiculous the pro-constitutional amendment backers are: some of their statements make me smile. The issue is simple: should unpopular expressions of opinion which do no harm to any person or any other person's property be forbidden? I am sure that in Nazi Germany it was forbidden to burn the Nazi flag--why would such a law in U.S. be good? The book is very good, although it is long and I am not sure that one needs to read 442 pages on the controversy. I surely hope the amendment never passes.… (meer)

This book provides a great detailed resource of past political repression. Wonderful reference for a research paper. Unfortunately, in light of current events we need an update!

In Goldstein's view, poltical repression hasn't just happened once in awhile or been of only marginal importance. Instead, "Political repression contributed significantly to the failure of the labor movement as a whole to achieve major power until the 1930s, the destruction of radical labor movements, the destruction of radical political movements, and the continuing self-censorship which Americans have imposed upon their own exercise of basic political freedoms."… (meer)