National Lawyers Guild
Encyclopedia
The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) is an advocacy group in the United States
"dedicated to the need for basic and progressive change in the structure of our political and economic system . . . to the end that human rights shall be regarded as more sacred than property interests."
Its members include lawyer
s, law students, paralegal
s, legal secretaries
, "jailhouse lawyer
s," and other legal workers. It was founded in 1937 as an alternative to the American Bar Association
(in protest of the ABA's then policy of excluding blacks and Jews from membership) and has several local chapters across the country as well as a number of Committees and Projects. It is an affiliate of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers
.
at a convention held from February 19-22, 1937 at the Washington Hotel. The individuals most instrumental in the creation of the organization included Harold I. Cammer
and George Wagman Fish, among others. The National Lawyers Guild was the nation's first racially integrated bar association. Among the NLG's first causes was its support of President Roosevelt
's New Deal
, which was opposed by the American Bar Association
(ABA). NLG assisted the emerging labor movement, and opposed the racial segregation policies in the ABA and in society in general.
Although its ranks included a significant number of members of the Communist Party USA
,
The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) is an advocacy group in the United States
"dedicated to the need for basic and progressive change in the structure of our political and economic system . . . to the end that human rights shall be regarded as more sacred than property interests."
Its members include lawyer
s, law students, paralegal
s, legal secretaries
, "jailhouse lawyer
s," and other legal workers. It was founded in 1937 as an alternative to the American Bar Association
(in protest of the ABA's then policy of excluding blacks and Jews from membership) and has several local chapters across the country as well as a number of Committees and Projects. It is an affiliate of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers
.
at a convention held from February 19-22, 1937 at the Washington Hotel. The individuals most instrumental in the creation of the organization included Harold I. Cammer
and George Wagman Fish, among others. The National Lawyers Guild was the nation's first racially integrated bar association. Among the NLG's first causes was its support of President Roosevelt
's New Deal
, which was opposed by the American Bar Association
(ABA). NLG assisted the emerging labor movement, and opposed the racial segregation policies in the ABA and in society in general.
Although its ranks included a significant number of members of the Communist Party USA
,
The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) is an advocacy group in the United States
"dedicated to the need for basic and progressive change in the structure of our political and economic system . . . to the end that human rights shall be regarded as more sacred than property interests."
Its members include lawyer
s, law students, paralegal
s, legal secretaries
, "jailhouse lawyer
s," and other legal workers. It was founded in 1937 as an alternative to the American Bar Association
(in protest of the ABA's then policy of excluding blacks and Jews from membership) and has several local chapters across the country as well as a number of Committees and Projects. It is an affiliate of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers
.
at a convention held from February 19-22, 1937 at the Washington Hotel. The individuals most instrumental in the creation of the organization included Harold I. Cammer
and George Wagman Fish, among others. The National Lawyers Guild was the nation's first racially integrated bar association. Among the NLG's first causes was its support of President Roosevelt
's New Deal
, which was opposed by the American Bar Association
(ABA). NLG assisted the emerging labor movement, and opposed the racial segregation policies in the ABA and in society in general.
Although its ranks included a significant number of members of the Communist Party USA
,Harvey Klehr, The Heyday of American Communism: The Depression Decade. New York: Basic Books, 1984; pg. 379. the NLG does not seem to have been created as a mass organization of the Communist Party or otherwise initiated through the volition of the Communist International.
Following the Nazis' invasion of the Soviet Union
, the Guild gave its support to President Roosevelt's wartime policies, including that of Japanese American internment
.Peter H. Irons, Justice at War: The Story of the Japanese American Internment Cases, New York: Oxford University Press, 1983; pp. 180-181.
During the McCarthy era
, the NLG was alleged by Attorney General Herbert Brownell Jr. and by the House Un-American Activities Committee
to be a Communist front
organization.Heard, p. 159; Finan, p. 223; Dyzenhaus, Moreau, and Ripstein, p. 711."In 1950 the House Un-American Activities Committee issued a report denouncing the Guild as 'the foremost legal bulwark of the Communist Party,' and in 1953 Attorney-General Herbert Brownell attacked the Guild as 'the legal mouthpiece of the Communist Party.'"Michael Powell, "Anatomy of a Counter-Bar Association: The Chicago Council of Lawyers," Law and Social Inquiry, vol. 4, no. 3, pg. 503 Federal Bureau of Investigation
director J. Edgar Hoover
repeatedly tried to get successive Attorneys General
to declare the NLG a "subversive organization," but without success.Ellen Schrecker, Many Are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America. New York: Little, Brown, 1998; pg. 224.
On June 9, 1954, on the 30th day of the Army-McCarthy Hearings
, McCarthy launched an attack against Fred Fisher
(a junior attorney working at the same law firm as the Army's attorney, Joseph Welch
) for having associated with the NLG while in law school. The attack provoked an impassioned response on the part of Welch, who angrily rebuked McCarthy with his famous plea, "You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?" Welch's speech was widely viewed as having undermined McCarthy's credibility and, coupled with an earlier March 1954 exposé by Edward R. Murrow
, led to a major shift in public opinion against McCarthy.
The NLG was also involved in the American Civil Rights Movement from an early date, organizing a 1947 conference on the subject of lynching
. This continued into the 1960s with the creation of the Guild's Committee for Legal Assistance. This era also saw NLG involvement in anti-war
(including draft
resistance) and anti-poverty efforts.
Past guild presidents have included Marjorie Cohn
(a law professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law
and author), Dobby Walker
(the first female President of the NLG, first serving in 1970 and member of the 1972 "Dream Team" that successfully defended Angela Davis
using innovative litigation techniques that are now commonplace)."Harvard Law School Video Archives," www.law.harvard.edu/
The NLG has historically been noted for its championing of progressive and left-wing causes.David Margolick, "The Law: At the Bar," New York Times, December 11, 1987.
Currently, the NLG opposes the PATRIOT Act, corporate globalization, the World Trade Organization
, and has called for the adoption of "the Plan of Action from the 2001 UN World Conference Against Racism, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance." The NLG also helps to train and provide legal observer
s for political demonstrations. The NLG has supported Palestinian
rights and a number of other causes. In November 2007, the NLG passed a resolution calling for the impeachment
of then President George W. Bush
and Vice President Dick Cheney
.James M. Leas, "National Lawyers Guild Backs Impeachment," Media With Conscience, November 27, 2007.
Most of the work of the Guild is done by committees, project and task forces. These include"Committees," www.nlg.org/
Many law collectives have been involved with the NLG.
David Gespass is the current NLG president. Heidi Boghosian is the current Executive Director.
, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Ford Foundation
, the New World Foundation
and other funders.
In 1944 the Special House Un-American Activities Committee
(HUAC) chaired by Texas
Congressman Martin Dies
published a brief history of the NLG in its massive and controversial "Appendix — Part IX" cataloging so-called "Communist Front Organizations" and their supporters.See: Special Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representative, Investigation of Un-American Propaganda Activities in the United States: Appendix — Part IX: Communist Front Organizations, with Special Reference to the National Citizens Political Action Committee: Second Section. Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1944; pp. 1267 to 1276. This report charged that the NLG, despite being promoted as a "professional organization of liberal lawyers" had proven itself by its actions to be "just one more highly deceptive Communist-operated front organization, primarily intended to serve the interests of the Communist Party of the United States..."
The 1944 HUAC history asserted that the NLG was merely "a streamlined edition of the International Juridicial Organization," a Communist Party mass organization established in 1931.Special Committee on Un-American Activities, Appendix — Part IX, pg. 1268. The document charged that "the National Lawyers Guild has faithfully followed the line of the Communist Party on numerous issues and has proven itself an important bulwark in defense of that party, its members, and organizations under its control."Special Committee on Un-American Activities, Appendix — Part IX, pg. 1269. Particularly damning in HUAC's eyes was the NLG's reversal of position on the war in Europe
after the June 22, 1941 invasion
of the Soviet Union
by the forces of Nazi Germany
, with an October resolution by the previously anti-war organization offering "unlimited support to all measures necessary to the defeat of Hitlerism" and supporting the Roosevelt administration's
policy of "'all out aid' and full collaboration with Great Britain
, the Soviet Union, China
, and other nations resisting Fascist aggression."Special Committee on Un-American Activities, Appendix — Part IX, pg. 1273.
The Guild was singled out again in a 1950 publication of the now permanent House Un-American Activities Committee
entitled Report on the National Lawyers Guild: Legal Bulwark of the Communist Party. This document accused the NLG of playing a part in "an overall Communist strategy aimed at weakening our nation’s defenses against the international Communist conspiracy."Quoted in Ann Fagan Ginger and Eugene M. Tobin (eds.), The National Lawyers Guild: From Roosevelt through Reagan. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1988; pg. 117. The report advocated that Guild members be barred from federal employment in light of the organization's "subversive" character.
In 2003, a controversy arose around the case of NLG member attorney Lynne Stewart
, who was charged with transmitting "terrorist communications" from prison for Omar Abdel-Rahman
, her former client and mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombings. Stewart was ultimately convicted of the charges and sentenced to 28 months in federal prison."Superseding Indictment Adds New Charges Against Ahmed Abdel Sattar, Lynne Steward, and Mohammed Yousry," United States Department of Justice, 2003. The NLG and other groups have steadfastly supported Stewart, condemning the charges and the conviction."National Lawyers Guild Condemns Verdict In Lynne Stewart Trial," National Lawyers Guild, November 19, 2009. NLG Attorney Elaine Cassel stated that "Stewart never provided any financial support, weaponry — or any other concrete aid — for any act of terrorism. No act of terrorism is alleged to have resulted from her actions."Elaine Cassel, "The Lynne Stewart Guilty Verdict: Stretching the Definition of 'Terrorism' To Its Limits," FindLaw, 2005.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
"dedicated to the need for basic and progressive change in the structure of our political and economic system . . . to the end that human rights shall be regarded as more sacred than property interests."
Its members include lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
s, law students, paralegal
Paralegal
Paralegal is used in most jurisdictions to describe a paraprofessional who assists qualified lawyers in their legal work. This is true in the United States and many other countries. However, in Ontario, Canada, paralegals are licensed by the Law Society of Upper Canada, giving paralegals an...
s, legal secretaries
Legal secretary
A legal secretary is a particular category of worker within the legal profession.In the practice of law in the United States, a legal secretary is person who works in the legal profession, typically assisting lawyers. Legal secretaries help by preparing and filing legal documents, such as appeals...
, "jailhouse lawyer
Jailhouse lawyer
Jailhouse lawyer is a colloquial term in North American English to refer to an inmate in a jail or other prison who, though usually never having practiced law nor having any formal legal training, informally assists other inmates in legal matters relating to their sentence or to their conditions...
s," and other legal workers. It was founded in 1937 as an alternative to the American Bar Association
American Bar Association
The American Bar Association , founded August 21, 1878, is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. The ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of academic standards for law schools, and the formulation...
(in protest of the ABA's then policy of excluding blacks and Jews from membership) and has several local chapters across the country as well as a number of Committees and Projects. It is an affiliate of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers
International Association of Democratic Lawyers
International Association of Democratic Lawyers is an international organization of jurists' associations.-Subsidiaries and affiliated organizations:Local:* Bangladesh - Democratic Lawyers Association of Bangladesh...
.
Establishment
The National Lawyers Guild was founded in Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
at a convention held from February 19-22, 1937 at the Washington Hotel. The individuals most instrumental in the creation of the organization included Harold I. Cammer
Harold I. Cammer
Harold I. Cammer was an American lawyer who co-founded the National Lawyers Guild. He was known for his participation in labor law, civil rights, peace and justice issues, and freedom of speech cases; in particular, defending those accused of communist leanings.-Early life:Cammer was born in June...
and George Wagman Fish, among others. The National Lawyers Guild was the nation's first racially integrated bar association. Among the NLG's first causes was its support of President Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
's New Deal
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...
, which was opposed by the American Bar Association
American Bar Association
The American Bar Association , founded August 21, 1878, is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. The ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of academic standards for law schools, and the formulation...
(ABA). NLG assisted the emerging labor movement, and opposed the racial segregation policies in the ABA and in society in general.
Although its ranks included a significant number of members of the Communist Party USA
Communist Party USA
The Communist Party USA is a Marxist political party in the United States, established in 1919. It has a long, complex history that is closely related to the histories of similar communist parties worldwide and the U.S. labor movement....
,
The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) is an advocacy group in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
"dedicated to the need for basic and progressive change in the structure of our political and economic system . . . to the end that human rights shall be regarded as more sacred than property interests."
Its members include lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
s, law students, paralegal
Paralegal
Paralegal is used in most jurisdictions to describe a paraprofessional who assists qualified lawyers in their legal work. This is true in the United States and many other countries. However, in Ontario, Canada, paralegals are licensed by the Law Society of Upper Canada, giving paralegals an...
s, legal secretaries
Legal secretary
A legal secretary is a particular category of worker within the legal profession.In the practice of law in the United States, a legal secretary is person who works in the legal profession, typically assisting lawyers. Legal secretaries help by preparing and filing legal documents, such as appeals...
, "jailhouse lawyer
Jailhouse lawyer
Jailhouse lawyer is a colloquial term in North American English to refer to an inmate in a jail or other prison who, though usually never having practiced law nor having any formal legal training, informally assists other inmates in legal matters relating to their sentence or to their conditions...
s," and other legal workers. It was founded in 1937 as an alternative to the American Bar Association
American Bar Association
The American Bar Association , founded August 21, 1878, is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. The ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of academic standards for law schools, and the formulation...
(in protest of the ABA's then policy of excluding blacks and Jews from membership) and has several local chapters across the country as well as a number of Committees and Projects. It is an affiliate of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers
International Association of Democratic Lawyers
International Association of Democratic Lawyers is an international organization of jurists' associations.-Subsidiaries and affiliated organizations:Local:* Bangladesh - Democratic Lawyers Association of Bangladesh...
.
Establishment
The National Lawyers Guild was founded in Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
at a convention held from February 19-22, 1937 at the Washington Hotel. The individuals most instrumental in the creation of the organization included Harold I. Cammer
Harold I. Cammer
Harold I. Cammer was an American lawyer who co-founded the National Lawyers Guild. He was known for his participation in labor law, civil rights, peace and justice issues, and freedom of speech cases; in particular, defending those accused of communist leanings.-Early life:Cammer was born in June...
and George Wagman Fish, among others. The National Lawyers Guild was the nation's first racially integrated bar association. Among the NLG's first causes was its support of President Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
's New Deal
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...
, which was opposed by the American Bar Association
American Bar Association
The American Bar Association , founded August 21, 1878, is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. The ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of academic standards for law schools, and the formulation...
(ABA). NLG assisted the emerging labor movement, and opposed the racial segregation policies in the ABA and in society in general.
Although its ranks included a significant number of members of the Communist Party USA
Communist Party USA
The Communist Party USA is a Marxist political party in the United States, established in 1919. It has a long, complex history that is closely related to the histories of similar communist parties worldwide and the U.S. labor movement....
,
The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) is an advocacy group in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
"dedicated to the need for basic and progressive change in the structure of our political and economic system . . . to the end that human rights shall be regarded as more sacred than property interests."
Its members include lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
s, law students, paralegal
Paralegal
Paralegal is used in most jurisdictions to describe a paraprofessional who assists qualified lawyers in their legal work. This is true in the United States and many other countries. However, in Ontario, Canada, paralegals are licensed by the Law Society of Upper Canada, giving paralegals an...
s, legal secretaries
Legal secretary
A legal secretary is a particular category of worker within the legal profession.In the practice of law in the United States, a legal secretary is person who works in the legal profession, typically assisting lawyers. Legal secretaries help by preparing and filing legal documents, such as appeals...
, "jailhouse lawyer
Jailhouse lawyer
Jailhouse lawyer is a colloquial term in North American English to refer to an inmate in a jail or other prison who, though usually never having practiced law nor having any formal legal training, informally assists other inmates in legal matters relating to their sentence or to their conditions...
s," and other legal workers. It was founded in 1937 as an alternative to the American Bar Association
American Bar Association
The American Bar Association , founded August 21, 1878, is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. The ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of academic standards for law schools, and the formulation...
(in protest of the ABA's then policy of excluding blacks and Jews from membership) and has several local chapters across the country as well as a number of Committees and Projects. It is an affiliate of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers
International Association of Democratic Lawyers
International Association of Democratic Lawyers is an international organization of jurists' associations.-Subsidiaries and affiliated organizations:Local:* Bangladesh - Democratic Lawyers Association of Bangladesh...
.
Establishment
The National Lawyers Guild was founded in Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
at a convention held from February 19-22, 1937 at the Washington Hotel. The individuals most instrumental in the creation of the organization included Harold I. Cammer
Harold I. Cammer
Harold I. Cammer was an American lawyer who co-founded the National Lawyers Guild. He was known for his participation in labor law, civil rights, peace and justice issues, and freedom of speech cases; in particular, defending those accused of communist leanings.-Early life:Cammer was born in June...
and George Wagman Fish, among others. The National Lawyers Guild was the nation's first racially integrated bar association. Among the NLG's first causes was its support of President Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
's New Deal
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...
, which was opposed by the American Bar Association
American Bar Association
The American Bar Association , founded August 21, 1878, is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. The ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of academic standards for law schools, and the formulation...
(ABA). NLG assisted the emerging labor movement, and opposed the racial segregation policies in the ABA and in society in general.
Although its ranks included a significant number of members of the Communist Party USA
Communist Party USA
The Communist Party USA is a Marxist political party in the United States, established in 1919. It has a long, complex history that is closely related to the histories of similar communist parties worldwide and the U.S. labor movement....
,Harvey Klehr, The Heyday of American Communism: The Depression Decade. New York: Basic Books, 1984; pg. 379. the NLG does not seem to have been created as a mass organization of the Communist Party or otherwise initiated through the volition of the Communist International.
Following the Nazis' invasion of the Soviet Union
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
, the Guild gave its support to President Roosevelt's wartime policies, including that of Japanese American internment
Japanese American internment
Japanese-American internment was the relocation and internment by the United States government in 1942 of approximately 110,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese who lived along the Pacific coast of the United States to camps called "War Relocation Camps," in the wake of Imperial Japan's attack on...
.Peter H. Irons, Justice at War: The Story of the Japanese American Internment Cases, New York: Oxford University Press, 1983; pp. 180-181.
During the McCarthy era
McCarthyism
McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. The term has its origins in the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting roughly from the late 1940s to the late 1950s and characterized by...
, the NLG was alleged by Attorney General Herbert Brownell Jr. and by the House Un-American Activities Committee
House Un-American Activities Committee
The House Committee on Un-American Activities or House Un-American Activities Committee was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives. In 1969, the House changed the committee's name to "House Committee on Internal Security"...
to be a Communist front
Communist front
A Communist front organization is an organization identified to be a front organization under the effective control of a Communist party, the Communist International or other Communist organizations. Lenin originated the idea in his manifesto of 1902, "What Is to Be Done?"...
organization.Heard, p. 159; Finan, p. 223; Dyzenhaus, Moreau, and Ripstein, p. 711."In 1950 the House Un-American Activities Committee issued a report denouncing the Guild as 'the foremost legal bulwark of the Communist Party,' and in 1953 Attorney-General Herbert Brownell attacked the Guild as 'the legal mouthpiece of the Communist Party.'"Michael Powell, "Anatomy of a Counter-Bar Association: The Chicago Council of Lawyers," Law and Social Inquiry, vol. 4, no. 3, pg. 503 Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
director J. Edgar Hoover
J. Edgar Hoover
John Edgar Hoover was the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States. Appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation—predecessor to the FBI—in 1924, he was instrumental in founding the FBI in 1935, where he remained director until his death in 1972...
repeatedly tried to get successive Attorneys General
United States Attorney General
The United States Attorney General is the head of the United States Department of Justice concerned with legal affairs and is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States government. The attorney general is considered to be the chief lawyer of the U.S. government...
to declare the NLG a "subversive organization," but without success.Ellen Schrecker, Many Are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America. New York: Little, Brown, 1998; pg. 224.
On June 9, 1954, on the 30th day of the Army-McCarthy Hearings
Army-McCarthy Hearings
The Army–McCarthy hearings were a series of hearings held by the United States Senate's Subcommittee on Investigations between April 1954 and June 1954. The hearings were held for the purpose of investigating conflicting accusations between the United States Army and Senator Joseph McCarthy...
, McCarthy launched an attack against Fred Fisher
Fred Fisher (lawyer)
Frederick George Fisher, Jr., was an American lawyer who first entered the public eye in connection with Senator Joseph McCarthy.-Biography:...
(a junior attorney working at the same law firm as the Army's attorney, Joseph Welch
Joseph Welch
Joseph Nye Welch was the head counsel for the United States Army while it was under investigation by Joseph McCarthy's Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations for Communist activities, an investigation known as the Army-McCarthy Hearings.- Early life :Welch was born in Primghar, Iowa on...
) for having associated with the NLG while in law school. The attack provoked an impassioned response on the part of Welch, who angrily rebuked McCarthy with his famous plea, "You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?" Welch's speech was widely viewed as having undermined McCarthy's credibility and, coupled with an earlier March 1954 exposé by Edward R. Murrow
Edward R. Murrow
Edward Roscoe Murrow, KBE was an American broadcast journalist. He first came to prominence with a series of radio news broadcasts during World War II, which were followed by millions of listeners in the United States and Canada.Fellow journalists Eric Sevareid, Ed Bliss, and Alexander Kendrick...
, led to a major shift in public opinion against McCarthy.
The NLG was also involved in the American Civil Rights Movement from an early date, organizing a 1947 conference on the subject of lynching
Lynching in the United States
Lynching, the practice of killing people by extrajudicial mob action, occurred in the United States chiefly from the late 18th century through the 1960s. Lynchings took place most frequently in the South from 1890 to the 1920s, with a peak in the annual toll in 1892.It is associated with...
. This continued into the 1960s with the creation of the Guild's Committee for Legal Assistance. This era also saw NLG involvement in anti-war
Peace movement
A peace movement is a social movement that seeks to achieve ideals such as the ending of a particular war , minimize inter-human violence in a particular place or type of situation, often linked to the goal of achieving world peace...
(including draft
Conscription in the United States
Conscription in the United States has been employed several times, usually during war but also during the nominal peace of the Cold War...
resistance) and anti-poverty efforts.
Past guild presidents have included Marjorie Cohn
Marjorie Cohn
Marjorie Cohn is a professor of law at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law, San Diego, California, and a former president of the National Lawyers Guild.In 1978 Cohn received a job in the International Association of Democratic Lawyers...
(a law professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law
Thomas Jefferson School of Law
Thomas Jefferson School of Law, or TJSL, is an independent law school in San Diego, California. It offers a Juris Doctor, and three Master of Laws programs, including one that is exclusively online, as well as a combined J.D./M.B.A. with San Diego State University...
and author), Dobby Walker
Dobby Walker
Doris Brin "Dobby" Walker Roberson was an American labor lawyer and founding partner with Robert Treuhaft at the firm of Treuhaft, Walker and Burnstein.-Background:...
(the first female President of the NLG, first serving in 1970 and member of the 1972 "Dream Team" that successfully defended Angela Davis
Angela Davis
Angela Davis is an American political activist, scholar, and author. Davis was most politically active during the late 1960s through the 1970s and was associated with the Communist Party USA, the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Panther Party...
using innovative litigation techniques that are now commonplace)."Harvard Law School Video Archives," www.law.harvard.edu/
Membership
Full membership in the NLG is open to lawyers, law students, and legal workers (including legal secretaries, legal investigators, paralegals, and jailhouse lawyers). Prior to the 1960s, membership was only open to lawyers. Members now include labor organizers, tribal sovereignty activists, civil liberties advocates, civil rights advocates, environmentalists, G.I. rights counselors,"Military Law Task Force of the National Lawyers Guild: About," National Lawyers Guild, nlgmltf.org/ and many other progressive cause advocates involved in some aspect of legal work.Program and committees
The NLG web site lists the following aims:- to eliminate racism;
- to safeguard and strengthen the rights of workers, women, farmers and minority groups, upon whom the welfare of the entire nation depends;
- to maintain and protect our civil rights and liberties in the face of persistent attacks upon them;
- to use the law as an instrument for the protection of the people, rather than for their repression.
The NLG has historically been noted for its championing of progressive and left-wing causes.David Margolick, "The Law: At the Bar," New York Times, December 11, 1987.
Currently, the NLG opposes the PATRIOT Act, corporate globalization, the World Trade Organization
World Trade Organization
The World Trade Organization is an organization that intends to supervise and liberalize international trade. The organization officially commenced on January 1, 1995 under the Marrakech Agreement, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade , which commenced in 1948...
, and has called for the adoption of "the Plan of Action from the 2001 UN World Conference Against Racism, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance." The NLG also helps to train and provide legal observer
Legal observer
Legal observers are individuals, usually representatives of civilian human rights agencies, who attend public demonstrations, protests and other activities where there is a potential for conflict between the public or activists and the police, security guards or other law enforcement personnel...
s for political demonstrations. The NLG has supported Palestinian
Palestinian people
The Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...
rights and a number of other causes. In November 2007, the NLG passed a resolution calling for the impeachment
Movement to impeach George W. Bush
During the presidency of George W. Bush, several American politicians sought to either investigate Bush for allegedly impeachable offenses, or to bring actual impeachment charges on the floor of the United States House of Representatives Judiciary Committee...
of then President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
and Vice President Dick Cheney
Dick Cheney
Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney served as the 46th Vice President of the United States , under George W. Bush....
.James M. Leas, "National Lawyers Guild Backs Impeachment," Media With Conscience, November 27, 2007.
Most of the work of the Guild is done by committees, project and task forces. These include"Committees," www.nlg.org/
- Anti-racism Committee
- Anti-Sexism Committee/Women's Caucus
- Environmental Justice Project
- International Committee NLG International Committee website, www.nlginternational.org/
- Africa Subcommittee NLG-IC Africa Subcommittee Website, nlginternational.org/
- Cuba SubcommitteeNLG-IC Cuba Subcommittee website, nlginternational.org/
- Free Palestine SubcommitteeNLG-IC Free Palestine Subcommittee website, nlginternational.org/
- Haiti Subcommittee NLG-IC Haiti Subcommittee website, nlginternational.org/
- International Labor Justice working groupNLG-IC International Labor Justice working group website, nlginternational.org/
- Korean Peace ProjectNLG-IC Korean Peace Project website, nlginternational.org/
- Mideast Subcommittee
- Philippines SubcommitteeNLG-IC Philippines Subcommittee website, nlginternational.org/
- Task Force on the AmericasNLG-IC Task Force on the Americas website, nlginternational.org/
- United Nations SubcommitteeNLG-IC United Nations Subcommittee website, nlginternational.org/
- Labor and Employment Committee
- Legal Workers Committee
- Mass Defense Committee
- Military Law Task ForceMilitary Law Task Force website, www.nlgmltf.org/
- National Immigration ProjectNLG National Immigration Project, www.nationalimmigrationproject.org/
- National Police Accountability Project
- Next Generation Caucus
- NLG Center for Democratic Communications
- NLG Sugar Law Center for Economic Justice
- Prison Law project
- Queer Caucus
- TUPOCC (The United People of Color Caucus)
Many law collectives have been involved with the NLG.
David Gespass is the current NLG president. Heidi Boghosian is the current Executive Director.
Funding
The NLG is a dues-paying membership organization, and various projects have also received funding from the Open Society InstituteOpen Society Institute
The Open Society Institute , renamed in 2011 to Open Society Foundations, is a private operating and grantmaking foundation started by George Soros, aimed to shape public policy to promote democratic governance, human rights, and economic, legal, and social reform...
, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Ford Foundation
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....
, the New World Foundation
New World Foundation
The New World Foundation is a liberal foundation, based in New York. It dispenses funds to liberal advocacy groups. It was founded in 1954 by Anita McCormick Blaine, an heiress to industrialist Cyrus Hall McCormick and a supporter of Henry Wallace's 1948 presidential campaign...
and other funders.
Criticism
From its earliest days the National Lawyers Guild has been the focus of controversy and criticism, primarily from conservatives but also from a certain number of centrists and anti-communist liberals.In 1944 the Special House Un-American Activities Committee
House Un-American Activities Committee
The House Committee on Un-American Activities or House Un-American Activities Committee was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives. In 1969, the House changed the committee's name to "House Committee on Internal Security"...
(HUAC) chaired by Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
Congressman Martin Dies
Martin Dies
Martin Dies was a Texas politician and a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives. His son, Martin Dies, Jr. was also a member of the United States House of Representatives....
published a brief history of the NLG in its massive and controversial "Appendix — Part IX" cataloging so-called "Communist Front Organizations" and their supporters.See: Special Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representative, Investigation of Un-American Propaganda Activities in the United States: Appendix — Part IX: Communist Front Organizations, with Special Reference to the National Citizens Political Action Committee: Second Section. Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1944; pp. 1267 to 1276. This report charged that the NLG, despite being promoted as a "professional organization of liberal lawyers" had proven itself by its actions to be "just one more highly deceptive Communist-operated front organization, primarily intended to serve the interests of the Communist Party of the United States..."
The 1944 HUAC history asserted that the NLG was merely "a streamlined edition of the International Juridicial Organization," a Communist Party mass organization established in 1931.Special Committee on Un-American Activities, Appendix — Part IX, pg. 1268. The document charged that "the National Lawyers Guild has faithfully followed the line of the Communist Party on numerous issues and has proven itself an important bulwark in defense of that party, its members, and organizations under its control."Special Committee on Un-American Activities, Appendix — Part IX, pg. 1269. Particularly damning in HUAC's eyes was the NLG's reversal of position on the war in Europe
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
after the June 22, 1941 invasion
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
by the forces of Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
, with an October resolution by the previously anti-war organization offering "unlimited support to all measures necessary to the defeat of Hitlerism" and supporting the Roosevelt administration's
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
policy of "'all out aid' and full collaboration with Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
, the Soviet Union, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, and other nations resisting Fascist aggression."Special Committee on Un-American Activities, Appendix — Part IX, pg. 1273.
The Guild was singled out again in a 1950 publication of the now permanent House Un-American Activities Committee
House Un-American Activities Committee
The House Committee on Un-American Activities or House Un-American Activities Committee was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives. In 1969, the House changed the committee's name to "House Committee on Internal Security"...
entitled Report on the National Lawyers Guild: Legal Bulwark of the Communist Party. This document accused the NLG of playing a part in "an overall Communist strategy aimed at weakening our nation’s defenses against the international Communist conspiracy."Quoted in Ann Fagan Ginger and Eugene M. Tobin (eds.), The National Lawyers Guild: From Roosevelt through Reagan. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1988; pg. 117. The report advocated that Guild members be barred from federal employment in light of the organization's "subversive" character.
In 2003, a controversy arose around the case of NLG member attorney Lynne Stewart
Lynne Stewart
Lynne Irene Stewart is a former attorney who represented controversial, poor, and often unpopular defendants who was convicted on charges of conspiracy and providing material support to terrorists in 2005, and sentenced to 28 months in prison. Her felony conviction led to her being automatically...
, who was charged with transmitting "terrorist communications" from prison for Omar Abdel-Rahman
Omar Abdel-Rahman
Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman , commonly known in the United States as "The Blind Sheikh", is a blind Egyptian Muslim leader who is currently serving a life sentence at the Butner Medical Center which is part of the Butner Federal Correctional Institution in Butner, North Carolina, United...
, her former client and mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombings. Stewart was ultimately convicted of the charges and sentenced to 28 months in federal prison."Superseding Indictment Adds New Charges Against Ahmed Abdel Sattar, Lynne Steward, and Mohammed Yousry," United States Department of Justice, 2003. The NLG and other groups have steadfastly supported Stewart, condemning the charges and the conviction."National Lawyers Guild Condemns Verdict In Lynne Stewart Trial," National Lawyers Guild, November 19, 2009. NLG Attorney Elaine Cassel stated that "Stewart never provided any financial support, weaponry — or any other concrete aid — for any act of terrorism. No act of terrorism is alleged to have resulted from her actions."Elaine Cassel, "The Lynne Stewart Guilty Verdict: Stretching the Definition of 'Terrorism' To Its Limits," FindLaw, 2005.
Further reading
- Dyzenhaus, David; Moreau, Sophia Reibetanz; and Ripstein, Arthur. Law and Morality: Readings in Legal Philosophy. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007.
- Finan, Christopher M. From the Palmer Raids to the Patriot Act: A History of the Fight for Free Speech in America. Boston: Beacon Press, 2007.
- Ann Fagan Ginger and Eugene M. Tobin (eds.), The National Lawyers Guild: From Roosevelt Through Reagan. Foreword by Ramsey Clark. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1988.
- Heard, Alex. The Eyes of Willie McGee: A Tragedy of Race, Sex, and Secrets in the Jim Crow South. New York: Harper, 2010.
- House Un-American Activities Committee, Report on the National Lawyers Guild: Legal Bulwark of the Communist Party. House Report No. 3123. Washington, DC: Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, 1950.
- Lobel, Jules. Success Without Victory: Lost Legal Battles and the Long Road to Justice in America. New York: New York University Press, 2003.
- Swidler, Joseph Charles and Henderson, A. Scott. Power and the Public Interest: The Memoirs of Joseph C. Swidler. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2002.
External links
- National Lawyers Guild website, www.nlg.org/
- Finding Aid for the Archives of the National Lawyers Guild Records, Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner ArchivesTamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner ArchivesThe Tamiment Library is a research library at New York University that documents radical and left history, with strengths in the histories of communism, socialism, anarchism, the New Left, the Civil Rights Movement, and utopian experiments. The Robert F. Wagner Archives, which is also housed in...
, Bobst Library, New York University, New York City.