Remembering Victor Rabinowitz: Legal Giant of the Left by Marjorie Cohn

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Remembering Victor Rabinowitz: Legal Giant of the Left

By Marjorie Cohn

Monthly Review

November 26, 2007



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, he and his partner
Leonard Boudin represented unions that were considered to be left-
wing. The firm counted as clients Daniel Ellsberg, Paul Robeson,
Julian Bond, Dashiell Hammett, Dr. Benjamin Spock, the Rev. Philip
Berrigan, Alger Hiss, the Black Panthers, the Salvador Allende
government in Chile, and the Cuban government.



Victor handled several landmark cases. In 1950, he challenged the
provision of the Taft-Hartley Act that prevented unions from
representing workers unless all union officers swore a loyalty oath
that they were not members of or affiliated with the Communist Party.
He lost the case 5 to 4 in the Supreme Court. His work in the Supreme
Court case of United States v. Yellin was instrumental in the demise
of the notorious House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). In
1964, in a 8 to 1 decision, the Supreme Court held in Banco Nacional
de Cuba v. Sabbatino that U.S. courts cannot review the legality of
the Cuban nationalizations of U.S.-owned property under international
law. Victor represented the government of Cuba in that case.



John Mage, prominent radical lawyer and Officer and Director of the
Monthly Review Foundation, wrote a review of Victor's book,
Unrepentant Leftist: A Lawyer's Memoir, for Monthly Review. Mage
recalled his favorite Victor story: "In the Cuban bank litigation,
Victor (representing the Cubans) was served with a discovery demand
that he forwarded to the Cuban Finance Ministry, at that time headed
by Che. Shortly afterwards he was in Havana for an anniversary
celebration and was invited to accompany Guevara. Che directed
Victor's attention to the confetti being thrown from an office tower
and said 'remember that discovery demand? . . . There it is.'"



The Rabinowitz Boudin partnership "constituted the defining invention
of radical lawyering," said Northwestern law professor Bernardine
Dohrn, a leader of the Weathermen who became the Guild student
organizer when Victor was NLG president from 1967-1971. The firm
"always represented the most controversial victims of oppressive state
power: labor struggles, the Community Party cases, constitutional
right to travel and political speech issues, defense of the Cuban
revolution, support for the civil rights/Black Freedom Movement,
defense of anti-Vietnam War activists, and legal defense of
Palestinian political activists," Dohrn added.



In his book, Victor characterized McCarthyism as "the era of Great
Fear." In those days, it was the fear of Communism; today, it is the
fear of Terrorism that the administration uses as an excuse to
decimate civil liberties. Describing the government repression
against Communists, leftists, and those suspected of being associated
with them, Victor wrote, "It was the worst of times . . . It was a
terrible and terrifying time." Even the ACLU "succumbed to the red
scare" in those days.



"It became dangerous to utter radical or even progressive thoughts in
an audible tone of voice," he added. The motion picture industry,
teachers, progressive Congress members, progressive organizations, and
those who read books considered "un-American" were targeted.
"Thousands of people lost their jobs, with little prospect of finding
new ones quickly. Families were destroyed and friendships were
wrecked," Victor reported.



Rabinowitz Boudin "probably represented more clients before McCarthy
and HUAC than any other law firm in the country, mostly for little or
no fee," said Michael Krinsky, a partner in the firm.



Victor wrote, "I was under surveillance by the FBI from the early
fifties until the late sixties. The earliest report on me I've found
in my FBI files states that on June 23, 1943, I was believed to be a
member of the Communist party, and it further described me as an
'agile-minded labor attorney' [Thanks]." Victor joined the Communist
Party in 1942 after the Soviet Union and the United States became
allies; he remained a member until the early 1960s.



During the Vietnam War, the Rabinowitz Boudin firm represented
hundreds of men facing the draft or criminal charges for refusing
induction due to their opposition to the war.



Lawyers pick and choose the cases they take for various reasons.
Victor's decisions were always based on principle. "I had always
adhered to a few basic rules," Victor observed. "I would not
represent a landlord against a tenant; I would not represent a drug
dealer; I would not represent an employer against a union; I would not
represent a fascist or right-wing institution."



Victor helped found the National Lawyers Guild, to, in his words,
"counter the anti-New Deal corporation-controlled American Bar
Association (ABA), which at that time did not admit black lawyers or
Communists to membership." As former Guild president and Yale law
professor Thomas Emerson wrote, "The National Lawyers Guild was born
in revolt - a revolt that embraced the entire intellectual life of the
times."



Victor's efforts contributed mightily to the Guild's survival after
the McCarthy period. He counted his work with the Guild as perhaps
his most significant accomplishment. "There are a few things I can
point to with some pride," Victor reflected. "The National Lawyers
Guild is almost sixty years old, and I played some part in building
it. I cannot think of more than a handful of national progressive
organizations that have lived so long in this perilous world."



Tributes to Victor are legion. Doris Brin Walker, the first woman
president of the Guild and one of its leaders during the McCarthy
period, said, "Victor was inspirational, witty, insightful, tolerant/
intolerant, humane, didactic - one of the most important and beloved
persons in my life. And he will remain so." Ann Fagan Ginger,
another Guild leader in this era, noted, "During the McCarthy/Truman
repressive period, Victor played a particularly important role in
meeting with other lawyers to figure out the best strategies to defend
against, and finally to attack, the Red Baiters. His principles were
larger than his ego, and after the meetings, he went back to his
office and saw to it that the tasks agreed on were actually carried
out." She called the Rabinowitz Boudin firm "a place of refuge and
hope for many whose jobs, reputations, and family relationships were
under attack."



"In each decade, Victor managed to stay utterly committed to the
revolutionary principles of his youth," according to Dohrn, "to work
with the highest intellectual and professional standards of the law,
and to attract clients of the most urgent issues of the moment. His
passionate love of books, his dedicated friendships, and his wry humor
abide in our hearts."



The National Lawyers Guild and all justice-loving people will miss
Victor Rabinowitz. He was a giant of a man.



Marjorie Cohn is a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and the
President of the National Lawyers Guild. She is the author of Cowboy
Republic: Six Ways the Bush Gang Has Defied the Law. Her articles are
archived at www.marjoriecohn.com.