In a return to the bad old days of McCarthyism, Bahia Amawi, a US citizen of Palestinian descent, lost her Texas elementary school job after refusing to pledge in writing that she would not participate in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Earlier this month, Amawi sued the school district that fired her. The… Read more »
Doris “Dobby” Brin Walker, the first woman president of the National Lawyers Guild, died on August 13 at the age of 90. Doris was a brilliant lawyer and a tenacious defender of human rights. The only woman in her University of California Berkeley law school class, Doris defied the odds throughout her life, achieving significant… Read more »
On November 16, 2007, Victor Rabinowitz, one of the giants of the legal profession and a tireless fighter for social justice, died at the age of 96. One of the founders of the National Lawyers Guild 70 years ago, Victor defended unpopular clients when other lawyers were afraid to touch them. During the McCarthy period,… Read more »
In 1937, the American Bar Association refused to allow people of color to join its ranks. With the blessing of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the National Lawyers Guild was founded as a multi-racial alternative to the ABA. The Guild’s founding members included the attorney general, several judges, some congressmen, and the head of the National… Read more »
Legendary labor organizer Clinton Jencks, who led mineworkers in New Mexico in a strike depicted in the classic 1953 movie “Salt of the Earth,” died Dec. 15, 2005 in San Diego of natural causes. He was 87. An international representative of the Amalgamated Bayard District Union of Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers in New Mexico,… Read more »
Any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires – a wiretap requires a court order.-George W. Bush, April 20, 2004, Buffalo, New York. In an assertion of executive power that rivals the excesses of the McCarthy era of the late 1940’s and 1950’s, and the dreaded COINTELPRO (counter-intelligence program) of… Read more »