NAACP v. Alabama (p. 1597)

             

                             1956 – NAACP is active in the State of Alabama. What is it like to be a known member of the NAACP in Alabama in 1956?

             

         What is the Constitutional basis for the right to association found by the Court in this case?

             

         Is the NAACP a person or a corporation?

The idea is that effective advocacy of a particular point of view is “undeniably enhanced by group association.”  Thus, the freedom to engage in association for the advancement of beliefs and ideas is an inseparable aspect of freedom of speech. A, B, and C have the right to speak as individuals as well as the right to come together and speak as a group.            

O.K.  But in this case the state was not interfering with anyone’s right to join the NAACP.  All the state wanted, as part of discovery in a lawsuit, was the membership list of the NAACP.  How does that interfere with the right of association? [State was simply trying to monitor corporate activity in the state].              

Disclosure of members in the past had resulted in various forms of reprisal (loss of employment, physical coercion, etc.).  Thus, protecting anonymity was essential to preventing a chilling effect on group membership. 

          [Edited: “State action which may have the effect of curtailing the freedom to associate is subject to the closest scrutiny."]

  What do you think?  Should the First Amendment protect the right of anonymity for members of groups engaged in political advocacy? 

What about anonymity for persons who donate funds to organizations involved in political advocacy? 

See AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITY FOUNDATION v. BONTA, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF CALIFORNIA (SCOTUS 2021) (protecting donor anonymity)

 In Talley v. California 362 U.S. 60 (1960), the Supreme Court struck down a state law that prohibited anonymous handbills.  The Court recognized the long and important history of anonymous “pamphlets, leaflets, brochures” and other publications, including the Federalist Papers.  “Persecuted groups and sects from time to time throughout history have been able to criticize oppressive practices and laws either anonymously or not at all.”  362 U.S.  at 64.