1st Amendment on Trial: The Case of the Michigan Six is a gripping documentary set in the Red scare of the 1950s that speaks passionately to America's current public debate on the difference between dissent and disloyalty and the importance of protecting the Bill of Rights.

Produced by Wayne State University Distinguished Professor Ronald Aronson and Academy Award Nominated Judith Montell, the film recounts one of the major political trials of the McCarthy era, held right here in Detroit. It ended sending six local activists to prison for six months before an appeal process that led to the Supreme Court reversing the decision and releasing all the defendants.

1st Amendment on Trial chronicles how the Federal government overreacted to dissent during the Cold War. On September 17, 1952, six leaders of the Michigan Communist Party were arrested in Detroit, under the Smith Act, for conspiring to teach and advocate the overthrow of the U.S. government. The film interweaves archival footage, newspaper headlines and interviews of defendant Saul Wellman and two of the children of defendants, prosecutor William G. Hundley, noted Detroit defense attorney Ernest Goodman as well as expert interviews with Lee Bollinger, constitutional scholar and Columbia University President; Bernard Friedman, Chief Judge of the Federal District Court of Eastern Michigan and Victor Navasky, publisher of the Nation.

Newspaper headlines and interviews describe how the courtroom was rocked again and again as trusted Communists revealed themselves to actually be government agents who had infiltrated the communist party and then testified against them.
According to filmmaker Aronson, "The film seeks to situate the story in historical era and then consider it from the distance of fifty years. It demonstrates that the political system failed to protect dissent in a time of national crisis but that the judicial system stepped in at the highest level to clarify and confirm freedom of speech and assembly." In 1957 the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the convictions and expanded free-speech rights under the First Amendment.

The film was spearheaded and underwritten by the Historical Society for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.

The compelling interest of the legal community in the story is evident in the words of the legal scholars, judges and attorneys interviewed in the film. Said Lee Bollinger, "The question is (if it happens again) what will the courts do? Will the courts say we went through this before and we made a mistake...we're not going to do that again even though people believe this is entirely reasonable?"

The final word in the film comes from Chief Judge Bernard Friedman, "The Wellman case was about free speech...that was really the bottom line."

--- Detroit Public Television (WTVS - Channel 56)

In the 1950s, six leaders of the Communist Part in Detroit were arrested, tried, convicted, and imprisoned for conspiring to teach and advocate the violent overthrow of the United States government. Their convictions were later reversed when the Supreme Court decided that advocating Communism was not a crime.

1st Amendment on Trial: The Case of the Detroit Six chronicles how the Federal government overreacted to dissent during the Cold War. The story is told by the prosecutor, the defense attorney, a defendant, and two of the defendants’ children. The free speech issues are placed in perspective by historians and the chief judge of the federal court where the trial took place.

“The question is, [if it happens again] what will the courts do? Will the courts say we wentthrough this before, we made a mistake. . . we’re not going to do that again even though people believe this is entirely reasonable?”
Lee C. Bollinger, Constitutional scholarPresident, Columbia University

“It’s a reminder. . .that you shouldn’t confuse dissent with disloyalty, and of the importance of protecting the Bill of Rights.”
Victor Navasky, Publisher Emeritus, The Nation

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