Interview with Marjorie Heins and Toki Clark

Marjorie Heins, author of "Priests of Our Democracy: The Supreme Court, Academic Freedom, and the Anti-Communist Purge"

Marjorie Heins's Website

Marjorie Heins is a civil liberties lawyer, writer, and teacher, and the founding director of the Free Expression Policy Project. Her previous book, Not in Front of the Children, won the American Library Association’s 2002 Eli Oboler Award for best published work in the field of intellectual freedom. Other books include Sex, Sin, and Blasphemy: A Guide to America’s Censorship Wars; Cutting the Mustard: Affirmative Action and the Nature of Excellence; and Strictly Ghetto Property: The Story of Los Siete de la Raza. She is a graduate of Harvard Law School.

Priests of Our Democracy tells of the teachers and professors who battled the anti-communist witch hunt of the 1950s. It traces the political fortunes of academic freedom beginning in the late 19th century, both on campus and in the courts. Combining political and legal history with wrenching personal stories, the book details how the anti-communist excesses of the 1950s inspired the Supreme Court to recognize the vital role of teachers and professors in American democracy. The crushing of dissent in the 1950s impoverished political discourse in ways that are still being felt, and First Amendment academic freedom, a product of that period, is in peril today. In compelling terms, this book shows why the issue should matter to everyone.

Ms. Toki M. Clark, author of "Marzell Goodwin, Esq.: The Truth Be Damned!"

Ms. Toki M. Clark's Website

Toki M. Clark is a criminal defense attorney residing in the midwest, the heart of buckeye country. After years of private practice and strolling courthouse halls, the writer in her emerged. This book, her debut novel, examines the complex life of a fictional, modern day trial lawyer. Ms. Clark is a graduate of Kent State University and The Ohio State University College of Law.

“Case dismissed!” the trial judge reluctantly shrieks, lowering his gavel and pounding it down like a sledgehammer. Prosecutor Molly Mead comes unglued. But hotshot criminal defense attorney Marzell Goodwin, once again, scoops up her leather briefcase and glides through the gauntlet of frustrated sheriff deputies with Bernie Holmes, her child molesting, drug dealing client, right by her side, on his way to freedom. But as Marzell drapes through the halls of the courthouse with Bernie, an epiphany kicks her squarely in the gut for the very first time: What if Bernie strikes again, raping another little girl? Or saturates her five-year-old nephew’s neighborhood with more crack cocaine? Or assaults another senior citizen? Not one to twiddle thumbs, Marzell resorts to bold and extraordinary measures to clean up society that just might leave you cheering for a unique brand of justice.

Steve Murphy, Executive Producer & Host