NCJ Number
79769
Date Published
1980
Length
256 pages
Annotation
This dissertation examines the use of the criminal courts during the Southern civil rights and Vietnam antiwar movements, discusses the problems the movements faced in the courts, and analyzes the determinants of the movements' defense strategies.
Abstract
Data came from various primary and secondary sources located at university libraries and the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute at Berkeley, Calif. In addition, six attorneys who had worked for the civil rights movement in the South were interviewed. The civil rights and antiwar movements presented contrasting pictures of political justice. In the former movement, the criminal justice system was used by Southern officials to harass civil rights activists. The movement had to spend large amounts of time, energy, and money in defending its participants against criminal charges. Little chance existed of winning acquittals at the trial level, owing to the region's hostility to the civil rights movement. In the antiwar movement, the criminal courts offered less hostility and greater opportunities for resource mobilization. Judges sometimes gave defense teams latitude in presenting political and moral arguments in criminal trials, and juries were far more willing than in the South to acquit. The opportunities that the courts offered the antiwar movement led to dilemmas in choosing between technical or political arguments at the trial level. The dissertation suggests that movements can be categorized according to the opportunities for mobilization and control the law and courts offer, and that the development and fate of social movement efforts in the United States cannot be fully understood without appreciating the impact of the criminal justice system on the struggle between protesters and the State. Legal citations are given within the text. About 300 references are given. (Author abstract modified)