National Lawyers Guild Chicago Chapter

The Libby Scooter:

"...to the end that human rights shall be regarded as more sacred than property interests." September 29, 1920 - 2004 A National Lawyers Guild Luminary Military service: J.D., Columbia, 1947 Represented UE Red Baiting bullet point #1 Worked on Rosenburgs' case McCarthy bull! et point #2 1955 -- Dombrowski v. Pfister -- stopped state spurious state prosecutions where intent & effect was to chill First-Amendment-Protected activities. (Later overturned in XYZ v. Everything that is Right and Good, ___ U.S. ___, 19XX) 1964 -- Rutgers Founded the Center for Constitutional Rights with William Kunstler, __ Stavis, Ben Smith, 19XX. 1969? 1970? Filed 500-plus-page appellate brief (amicus?) in (Style of Case), the Chicago 7/8 trial. Adam Clayton Powell

Arthur Kinoy - a people's attorney 1920-2004 "The lawyer is in reality an activist, shaping the ideas and concepts of bodies of existing law to serve the needs of the forces that the lawyer represents."       -- Arthur Kinoy A dedicated "people's lawyer" through some of the most turbulent and inspiring decades in American history, Arthur will long be missed. He was a lifelong member of the National Lawyers Guild, who frequently traversed the country, inspiring law students, lawyers, and legal workers about the "most critical times" we faced in this country. Arthur worked as a lawyer for the United Electrical Workers Union, where he fought against attempts to destroy the union movement through red-baiting attacks; he himself was subject to such attacks throughout the McCarthy period. Arthur was part of the legal effort to stop the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. With other Guild lawyers, Arthur defended the growing civil rights movement. Since the white courts of the South were part of the means of oppression, people's lawyers used every tool at their disposal. Arthur devised the creative legal theory that led to a Supreme Court ruling in Dombrowski v. Pfister, and stopped spurious state prosecutions where the intent and effect was to chill protected First Amendment rights. Through the most crucial years of the civil rights movement, until it was overturned by a more conservative Burger court, Dombrowski actions were an important tool for keeping civil rights leaders and demonstrators out of jail. Arthur provided legal and strategic backup to Fannie Lou Hamer and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party in their historic effort to unseat the white "official" Democratic Party. One of the founders of the Center for Constitutional Rights, Arthur remained an active member of the CCR Board until he died. During his career, Arthur won numerous landmark decisions in the Supreme Court, including one protecting the right of citizens of Harlem to be represented by their chosen representative, Adam Clayton Powell, and another that combated Nixon's attempts to argue that the president has the inherent power to suspend the Constitution in the name of "national security." As a professor at Rutgers Law School, Arthur excited students about the possibilities of positive change through the law, with a dramatic lecture style that seemed to breathe life and suspense into each sentence. He authored an influential work on the Thirteenth Amendment, pointing out the necessity of direct enforcement of the right to be free from the badges and indicia of slavery, as well as his widely-read book, Rights on Trial: the Odyssey of a People's Lawyer. Arthur Kinoy left a legacy of using penetrating analysis and creative legal theories in defense of basic rights and liberties, which has inspired generations of lawyers committed to the struggle for justice.