RICHARD T. ELY

Stars Dan O’Herlihy and Edward Asner. At an 1894 hearing, University of Wisconsin Professor Ely is charged with instigating strikes and boycotts. He is suspected of advocating subversive doctrines because he insists that his students evaluate all ideas. His acquittal by the regents is now seen as a landmark of American academic freedom. Issues: the free competition of ideas and the danger of “destroying liberty in the process of defending it.”