Daily Read: Heins on Academic Freedom

The First Amendment's relationship to what we call "academic freedom" can be fraught (here's one recent example), but in her compelling new book, Priests of Our Democracy Marjorie Heins provides doctrinal, historical, and political links between our understandings.  Subtitled The Supreme Court, Academic Freedom, and the Anti-Communist Purges, the book takes as it centerpiece Keyishian v. Board of Regents (1967), a case that is oft-cited and just as often omitted from casebooks. 

Heins can be viewed takling about her book in a series of videos, available here; an excerpt from The Chronicle of Higher Education is available here.

For ConLawProfs not teaching Keyishian - - - and this book will make you wonder why you are not - - - Heins' book illuminates important First Amendment doctrine and politics.  Her history develops the parties, the lawyers, and the institutions involved in Keyishian with fascinating detail and readable prose.  Her discussion of the larger anti-Communist "purges" is sharp and solid; it leads to considerations of the post 9/11 landscape.

And for ConLawProfs writing in the area, Heins' volume is an absolutely essential read. 

RR