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Casebook Read Credits
Shameful or Ignored Supreme Court Cases
Resource 4 . 5
31 minutes

Kleindienst v. Mandel

Seth J. Chandler

1. Your professor believes this case is highly relevant to the recent case of Trump v. Hawaii and to much of contemporary immigration debate. Why might that be?

2. The Douglas dissent proceeds on grounds of constitutional avoidance and interprets the immigration statutes to protect those who want to listen to Mandel. The Marshall dissent meets the constitution head on and finds the first amendment wins. Which approach do you prefer?  Suppose Congress passed the statutes making clear that no communists of those espousing communism could enter the United States. Would that be constitutional? Does it matter if we substitute "Jihadism" or "destruction of the State of Israel" or "criticism of President Trump" or "Libertarianism"?

Supreme Court of the United States
408 U.S. 753, 33 L. Ed. 2d 683, 92 S. Ct. 2576, 1972 U.S. LEXIS 22, SCDB 1971-177
No. 71-16
1972-06-29

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