- National Lawyers Guild
-
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."[1]
Its members include lawyers, law students, paralegals, legal secretaries, "jailhouse lawyers," 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.
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.[2] 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 observers 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.[3]
Most of the work of the Guild is done by committees, project and task forces. These include[4]
- Anti-racism Committee
- Anti-Sexism Committee/Women's Caucus
- Environmental Justice Project
- International Committee [5]
- Africa Subcommittee [6]
- Cuba Subcommittee[7]
- Free Palestine Subcommittee (formerly Free Gaza Subcommittee)[8]
- Haiti Subcommittee [9]
- International Labor Justice working group[10]
- Korean Peace Project[11]
- Mideast Subcommittee
- Philippines Subcommittee[12]
- Task Force on the Americas[13]
- United Nations Subcommittee[14]
- Labor and Employment Committee
- Legal Workers Committee
- Mass Defense Committee
- Military Law Task Force
- National Immigration Project
- 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.
Contents
History
The NLG was founded in 1937 by Harold I. Cammer, George Wagman Fish and others.[15] The National Lawyers Guild was the nation's first racially integrated bar association.[15] 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.[16]
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.[17]
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.[18][19] 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.[20] 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).[21]
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[22], and many other progressive cause advocates involved in some aspect of legal work.
Funding
The NLG is a dues-paying membership organization, and various projects have also received funding from the Open Society Institute, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the New World Foundation and other funders.
Criticism
Since its founding, the NLG has been the focus of controversy and criticism, primarily from more conservative elements but also from moderates and liberals. 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.[23] The NLG and many other groups have steadfastly supported Stewart, condemning the charges and the conviction.[24] 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."[25]
Further reading
The National Lawyers Guild: From Roosevelt Through Reagan. Temple University Press. 1988. ISBN 0-87722-488-9.
Notes
- ^ "National Lawyers Guild History". http://www.nlg.org/about/history/. Retrieved November 7, 2009.
- ^ Margolick, David (December 11, 1987). "THE LAW; At the Bar". New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE4DB1E38F932A25751C1A961948260&sec=&spon=
- ^ Leas, James M (November 27, 2007). "National Lawyers Guild Backs Impeachment". Media With Conscience. http://mwcnews.net/content/view/18368&Itemid=1.
- ^ http://www.nlg.org/members/committees/
- ^ [1] NLG International Committee Website
- ^ [2] NLG-IC Africa Subcommittee Website
- ^ [3] NLG-IC Cuba Subcommittee website
- ^ [4] NLG-IC Free Palestine Subcommittee website
- ^ [5] NLG-IC Haiti Subcommittee website
- ^ [6] NLG-IC International Labor Justice working group website
- ^ [7] NLG-IC Korean Peace Project website
- ^ [8] NLG-IC Philippines Subcommittee website
- ^ [9] NLG-IC Task Force on the Americas website
- ^ [10] NLG-IC nited Nations Subcommittee website
- ^ a b Lobel, p. 2; Swidler and Henderson, p. 243.
- ^ Erlinder, Peter. "National Lawyers Guild; History". National Lawyers Guild. http://www.nlg.org/about/history/.
- ^ Irons, Peter H. (1983). Justice at War: The Story of the Japanese American Internment Cases. Oxford University Press. pp. 180–181. ISBN 019503273X.
- ^ 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.'"; Powell, Michael (2006-07-28). "Anatomy of a Counter-Bar Association: The Chicago Council of Lawyers" (PDF). Law & Social Inquiry 4 (3): 503. doi:10.1111/j.1747-4469.1979.tb01027.x. http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/119606546/PDFSTART. Retrieved 2009-03-01.
- ^ Schrecker, Ellen (1998). Many Are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America. Little, Brown. p. 224. ISBN 0-316-77470-7.
- ^ Harvard Law School Video Archives
- ^ [11]
- ^ "SUPERSEDING INDICTMENT ADDS NEW CHARGES AGAINST AHMED ABDEL SATTAR, LYNNE STEWART, AND MOHAMMED YOUSRY". United States Department of Justice. 2003. http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2003/November/03_crm_631.htm. Retrieved 2003-11-19.
- ^ "National Lawyers Guild Condemns Verdict In Lynne Stewart Trial". National Lawyers Guild. 2005. http://www.nlg.org/news/press-releases/national-lawyers-guild-stands-by-longtime-member-lynne-stewart-as-she-surrenders-to-federal-custody/. Retrieved 2006-09-15.
- ^ Cassel, Elaine (2005). "The Lynne Stewart Guilty Verdict: Stretching the Definition of "Terrorism" To Its Limits". FindLaw. http://writ.corporate.findlaw.com/cassel/20050214.html. Retrieved 2006-09-15.
Bibliography
- 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, Mass.: Beacon Press, 2007.
- Heard, Alex. The Eyes of Willie McGee: A Tragedy of Race, Sex, and Secrets in the Jim Crow South. New York: Harper, 2010.
- 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, Tenn.: University of Tennessee Press, 2002.
External links
Categories:- Legal organizations based in the United States
- McCarthyism
- Organizations established in 1937
- Progressivism in the United States
- Political organizations in the United States
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