National Lawyers Guild 1025469 219931129 2008-06-17T14:38:13Z 163.247.70.78 /* History */ link [[Image:National lawyers guild emblem.jpg|right|150px]] The '''National Lawyers Guild''' is a [[Progressivism|progressive/left-wing]] [[Bar Association]] in the [[United States]] "dedicated to the need for basic and progressive change in the structure of our political and economic system."<ref> {{cite web | last = | first = | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = National Lawyers Guild web site | publisher = | date = | url = http://www.nlg.org/ | accessdate = }}</ref> Its members include [[lawyer]]s, law students, [[paralegal]]s, [[Legal secretary|legal secretaries]], "[[jailhouse lawyer]]s", and other legal workers. It was founded in 1937 as an alternative to the [[American Bar Association]] and has several local chapters across the country as well as a number of Committees and Projects. 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 support of liberal and left-wing causes.<ref> {{Citation | last =Margolick | first = David | author-link =David Margolick | title =THE LAW; At the Bar | newspaper =New York Times | date =December 11, 1987 | url = http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE4DB1E38F932A25751C1A961948260&sec=&spon=}}</ref> 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 people|Palestinian]] rights and a number of other causes. In November, 2007, the NLG passed a resolution calling for the [[Movement to impeach George W. Bush|impeachment]] of President [[George W. Bush]] and Vice President [[Dick Cheney]].<ref> {{cite web | last = Leas | first = James M | title = National Lawyers Guild Backs Impeachment | publisher = Media With Conscience | date = November 27, 2007 | url =http://mwcnews.net/content/view/18368&Itemid=1 | accessdate = }}</ref> [[Marjorie Cohn]], a law professor at [[Thomas Jefferson School of Law]], is President of the NLG as of October 2006. [[Dobby Walker]] was the first woman President of the NLG in 1970, and was a member of the 1972 "Dream Team" that successfully defended [[Angela Davis]] using innovative litigation techniques that are now commonplace. <ref>[http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/saturday_school/video_archive.shtml Harvard Law School Video Archives</ref> ==History== At its founding in 1937, the National Lawyers Guild was the nation's first racially integrated bar association. Among the NLG's first causes was its support of [[Franklin D. Roosevelt|President Roosevelt’s]] [[New Deal]], which was opposed by the [[American Bar Association]]. NLG assisted the emerging labor movement, and opposed the racial segregation policies in the American Bar Association and in society in general.<ref name=history> {{cite web | last = Erlinder | first = Peter | title = National Lawyers Guild; History | publisher = National Lawyers Guild | date = | url =http://nlg.org/aboutus/history.php | accessdate = }}</ref> Following the [[Operation Barbarossa|Nazis' invasion of the Soviet Union]], the Guild gave its complete support to President Roosevelt's wartime policies, including that of [[Japanese American internment]].<ref> {{cite book | last = Irons | first = Peter H. | authorlink = Peter H. Irons | year = 1983 | title = Justice at War: The Story of the Japanese American Internment Cases | publisher = Oxford University Press | pages = pg. 180-181 | id = ISBN 019503273X }}</ref> During the [[McCarthyism|McCarthy era]], it was alleged to be a [[Communist front]] organization. [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] director [[J. Edgar Hoover]] repeatedly tried to get successive [[United States Attorney General|Attorneys General]] to declare the NLG a "subversive organization," but without success.<ref> {{cite book | last = Schrecker | first = Ellen | authorlink = Ellen Schrecker | year = 1998 | title = Many Are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America | publisher = Little, Brown | pages = pg. 224 | id = ISBN 0-316-77470-7 }}</ref> On [[June 9]], [[1954]], on the 30th day of the [[Army-McCarthy Hearings]], McCarthy launched an attack against [[Fred Fisher (lawyer)|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 (1955-1968)|American Civil Rights Movement]] from an early date, organizing a 1947 conference on the subject of [[Lynching in the United States|lynching]]. This continued into the 1960s with the creation of the Guild's Committee for Legal Assistance. This era also saw NLG involvement in [[Peace movement|anti-war]] (including [[Conscription in the United States|draft]] resistance) and anti-poverty efforts. == 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 of the Guild now include labor organizers, tribal sovereignty activists, civil liberties advocates, civil rights advocates, environmentalists, and many other progressive cause advocates involved in some aspect of legal work. According to journalist Chip Berlet, a paralegal member of the NLG: <blockquote>In the 1950s the National Lawyers Guild refused to purge its members who were members of the Communist Party. Today there are Guild members who are cadres in a variety of communist groups along with a majority of unaffiliated members. As a paralegal investigator, I joined the Guild in the 1970s. I found an example of an organization that tried hard to incorporate the participation of cadres within a democratic structure. [...] The cacophony at some meetings makes Star Wars seem like a minimalist film. I have chaired committee meetings with debates featuring cadres from Leninist, Trotskyist, Stalinist, and Maoist groups, along with Marxists, anarchists, libertarians, and progressive independents—interacting with a preponderance of reluctant Democrats—all intertwined with multiple alternate identities as lawyers, legal workers, labor organizers, tribal sovereignty activists, civil liberties and civil rights advocates, environmentalists, feminists, gay men and lesbians, and people of color.<ref> {{cite web | last = Berlet | first = Chip | authorlink = Chip Berlet | coauthors = | title = Abstaining from Bad Sects: Understanding Sects, Cadres, and Mass Movement Organizations | publisher = Resist, Inc. | date = | url = http://www.resistinc.org/newsletter/issues/1999/12/berlet.html | accessdate = }}</ref></blockquote> == 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. [[Sidney Hook]] described the individuals who founded the NLG as “not being capable of taking any stand that conflicts with the [[CPUSA|CPUSA (the Communist Party of the USA)]]”. Hook illustrated this point with the NLG’s repeated refusal to defend the [[Trotskyist]] [[Socialist Workers Party (United States)|Socialist Workers Party]] members prosecuted under the [[Smith Act]] in 1941 but being one of the first legal defense teams involved in the defense of CPUSA membership prosecuted under the Smith Act in 1947.<ref> {{cite book |last = Shapiro |first = Edward |year = 1995 |title = Letters of Sidney Hook: Democracy, Communism, and the Cold War |publisher = M.E. Sharpe |date = May, 1995}}</ref> Central to these critics' arguments is the claim that the organization is a supporter of communism, or, more recently, terrorism.<ref> {{cite web |last = Rigsby |first = Jesse |year = 2003 |url = http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=7494 |title = NLG: The Legal Fifth Column |work = Articles |publisher = FrontPageMagazine.com |accessdate = 2006-09-15}} - "The Guild, not content to merely express "solidarity" with terrorists abroad, works to make the U.S. a safer place—for terrorists. The Guild uniformly opposes anti-terrorism measures and laws, yet supports those who have engaged in terrorist or anti-law enforcement acts..."</ref><ref> {{cite web |last = Macomber |first = Shawn |year = 2005 |url = http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/macomber200511210826.asp |title = Real Revelations |work = National Review Online |publisher = National Review Online |accessdate = 2006-09-15}} - "While the NLG's beginnings as a civil-rights-focused alternative to then-segregated American Bar Association in 1937 were quite noble, the organization's affinity for oppressors and terrorists since has been more than a little troubling."</ref> These claims have been repeatedly denied by the organization's leadership as “[[red-baiting]]”. 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.<ref> {{cite web |year = 2003 |url = http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2003/November/03_crm_631.htm |title = SUPERSEDING INDICTMENT ADDS NEW CHARGES AGAINST AHMED ABDEL SATTAR, LYNNE STEWART, AND MOHAMMED YOUSRY |publisher = United States Department of Justice |accessdate = 2003-11-19 }}</ref> The NLG supported Stewart, condemning the charges and the conviction.<ref> {{cite web |last = |first = |year = 2005 |url = http://www.nlg.org/news/statements/LynneStewart0205.htm |title = National Lawyers Guild Condemns Verdict In Lynne Stewart Trial |publisher = National Lawyers Guild |accessdate = 2006-09-15 }}</ref> 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."<ref> {{cite web |last = Cassel |first = Elaine |year = 2005 |url = http://writ.corporate.findlaw.com/cassel/20050214.html |title = The Lynne Stewart Guilty Verdict: Stretching the Definition of "Terrorism" To Its Limits |work = |publisher = FindLaw |accessdate = 2006-09-15 }}</ref> ==Further reading== {{cite book | last = | first = | year = 1988 | title = The National Lawyers Guild: From Roosevelt Through Reagan | publisher = Temple University Press | id = ISBN 0-87722-488-9 }} ==Notes== {{reflist}} ==External links== *[http://www.nlg.org/ National Lawyers Guild web site] *[http://www.nationalimmigrationproject.org NLG National Immigration Project] *[http://www.nlgcdc.org NLG Center for Democratic Communications] [[Category:American legal organizations]] [[Category:American bar associations]] [[Category:McCarthyism]] [[Category:1937 establishments]]