Elmer Gertz
Encyclopedia
Elmer Gertz was an American
lawyer
, writer and civil rights
activist
. During his lengthy legal career he won some high-profile cases, most notably parole
for notorious killer Nathan Leopold
and the obscenity
trial of Henry Miller
's novel Tropic of Cancer
. In addition to accounts of his cases and career, he also reviewed books and edited a collection of works by Frank Harris
, whom he represented as literary agent
for a while.
He is best remembered in the legal world, however, for a case in which he was not an advocate but a plaintiff: Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc.
, a libel
action he brought against the John Birch Society
in 1969 after it accused him of being part of a Communist conspiracy to discredit local police departments. He prevailed, but only after a 14-year battle that saw the case go before the Supreme Court, which ruled that as a private figure Gertz did not have to prove actual malice
on the defendants' part.
n descent, Gertz was born to Morris and Grace Gertz in Chicago's Maxwell Street
neighborhood. He attended elementary school
with future Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg
. At the age of ten, his mother dead and his father unable to care for his children, he spent the remainder of his childhood in orphanage
s in Chicago and Cleveland.
and Leo Rosten
and newspaper magnate Leo Lerner
. Afterwards, he attended the University of Chicago
and its law school
. He received his law degree
in 1930 and went to work in the firm of the well-connected Jacob Arvey
. He would remain there for another 14 years.
He remained involved in education throughout his life, teaching a civil rights class at John Marshall Law School
until his death.
's famous argument against the death penalty in the Leopold-Loeb trial. He himself achieved national fame when he won parole
for Nathan Leopold, the surviving half of the infamous thrill-killing duo, in 1958. He made a point of walking out of the prison gates with his client.
He and Miller became good friends after he persuaded a court to lift the ban on Tropic of Cancer, a decision the Supreme Court upheld in 1964's Grove Press, Inc., v. Gerstein.
In the mid-1960s, Gertz emulated his legal inspiration, Clarence Darrow, when he argued against the death sentence
handed down to Jack Ruby
for killing Lee Harvey Oswald
. It was overturned, and Ruby, who was terminally ill, served the remaining few years of his life in prison.
In addition to his law practice, he was an adjunct professor teaching Civil Rights Law at The John Marshall Law School in Chicago.
, which alleged in an article about the case in its magazine, American Opinion, that he had a criminal record and was part of a Communist
conspiracy to discredit local police departments in order to pave the way for Communist control by a national police force.
He sued the Society for defamation, alleging the report and won a $500,000 judgment. On appeal, the case went all the way to the Supreme Court, which was asked to settle the question of whether or not Gertz was a public figure, who would thus have to prove actual malice
to win (which he probably could not have). In 1974, the Court ruled in a 5-4 decision that he was not a public figure and that states were free to set their own standards for libel
when they were alleged by a private figure. Ironically, given his successes in fighting censorship
, some of the dissenting justices and other commentators have viewed his victory as limiting First Amendment
rights.
The case went back to trial where Gertz once again prevailed and won. It ended in 1983 when the Supreme Court declined to hear the John Birch Society's appeal.
A few years later, Gertz and his wife went on a round-the-world, luxury cruise
with the money he won and sent "wish you were here" postcard
s back to Welch and his organization every chance they got.
s to the local bar association.
In 1969, he was elected to the Illinois Constitutional Convention, where he chaired the committee on its Bill of Rights, working closely with the committee's legal counsel, Dallin H. Oaks
. It has been called the strongest bill of rights of any state constitution at that point in time. A decade later, he chaired the equivalent committees of the Illinois and Chicago bar associations. He also served as chairman of the Lawyers' Association. After his death, the state bar created the Elmer Gertz Award for exceptional dedication to protecting civil liberties.
He received Israel
's Prime Minister
's Medal in 1972 for his service on that country's behalf, and considered that his finest accomplishment.
"Things do change for the better," he assured some students near the end of his life, "very, very slowly."
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
, writer and civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
activist
Activism
Activism consists of intentional efforts to bring about social, political, economic, or environmental change. Activism can take a wide range of forms from writing letters to newspapers or politicians, political campaigning, economic activism such as boycotts or preferentially patronizing...
. During his lengthy legal career he won some high-profile cases, most notably parole
Parole
Parole may have different meanings depending on the field and judiciary system. All of the meanings originated from the French parole . Following its use in late-resurrected Anglo-French chivalric practice, the term became associated with the release of prisoners based on prisoners giving their...
for notorious killer Nathan Leopold
Leopold and Loeb
Nathan Freudenthal Leopold, Jr. and Richard Albert Loeb , more commonly known as "Leopold and Loeb", were two wealthy University of Michigan alumni and University of Chicago students who murdered 14-year-old Robert "Bobby" Franks in 1924 and were sentenced to life imprisonment.The duo were...
and the obscenity
Obscenity
An obscenity is any statement or act which strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time, is a profanity, or is otherwise taboo, indecent, abhorrent, or disgusting, or is especially inauspicious...
trial of Henry Miller
Henry Miller
Henry Valentine Miller was an American novelist and painter. He was known for breaking with existing literary forms and developing a new sort of 'novel' that is a mixture of novel, autobiography, social criticism, philosophical reflection, surrealist free association, and mysticism, one that is...
's novel Tropic of Cancer
Tropic of Cancer (novel)
Tropic of Cancer is a novel by Henry Miller which has been described as "notorious for its candid sexuality" and as responsible for the "free speech that we now take for granted in literature." It was first published in 1934 by the Obelisk Press in Paris, France, but this edition was banned in the...
. In addition to accounts of his cases and career, he also reviewed books and edited a collection of works by Frank Harris
Frank Harris
Frank Harris was a Irish-born, naturalized-American author, editor, journalist and publisher, who was friendly with many well-known figures of his day...
, whom he represented as literary agent
Literary agent
A literary agent is an agent who represents writers and their written works to publishers, theatrical producers and film producers and assists in the sale and deal negotiation of the same. Literary agents most often represent novelists, screenwriters and major non-fiction writers...
for a while.
He is best remembered in the legal world, however, for a case in which he was not an advocate but a plaintiff: Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc.
Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc.
Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc., 418 U.S. 323 , was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States established the standard of First Amendment protection against defamation claims brought by private individuals...
, a libel
Slander and libel
Defamation—also called calumny, vilification, traducement, slander , and libel —is the communication of a statement that makes a claim, expressly stated or implied to be factual, that may give an individual, business, product, group, government, or nation a negative image...
action he brought against the John Birch Society
John Birch Society
The John Birch Society is an American political advocacy group that supports anti-communism, limited government, a Constitutional Republic and personal freedom. It has been described as radical right-wing....
in 1969 after it accused him of being part of a Communist conspiracy to discredit local police departments. He prevailed, but only after a 14-year battle that saw the case go before the Supreme Court, which ruled that as a private figure Gertz did not have to prove actual malice
Actual malice
Actual malice in United States law is a condition required to establish libel against public officials or public figures and is defined as "knowledge that the information was false" or that it was published "with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not." Reckless disregard does not...
on the defendants' part.
Early life
A Jew of LithuaniaLithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
n descent, Gertz was born to Morris and Grace Gertz in Chicago's Maxwell Street
Maxwell Street
Maxwell Street is an east-west street in Chicago, Illinois that intersects with Halsted Street just south of Roosevelt Road. It runs at 1330 South in the numbering system running from 500 West to 1126 West. The Maxwell Street neighborhood is considered part of the Near West Side and is one of the...
neighborhood. He attended elementary school
Elementary school
An elementary school or primary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as elementary or primary education. Elementary school is the preferred term in some countries, particularly those in North America, where the terms grade school and grammar...
with future Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg
Arthur Goldberg
Arthur Joseph Goldberg was an American statesman and jurist who served as the U.S. Secretary of Labor, Supreme Court Justice and Ambassador to the United Nations.-Early life:...
. At the age of ten, his mother dead and his father unable to care for his children, he spent the remainder of his childhood in orphanage
Orphanage
An orphanage is a residential institution devoted to the care of orphans – children whose parents are deceased or otherwise unable or unwilling to care for them...
s in Chicago and Cleveland.
Education
He graduated from Crane Technical High School, where he made the acquaintance of other young men who would become famous in their own right: authors Meyer LevinMeyer Levin
Meyer Levin was a Jewish-American novelist, known for works on the Leopold and Loeb case and the Anne Frank case.-Leopold and Loeb case:...
and Leo Rosten
Leo Rosten
Leo Calvin Rosten was born in Łódź, Russian Empire and died in New York City. He was a teacher and academic, but is best known as a humorist in the fields of scriptwriting, storywriting, journalism and Yiddish lexicography.-Early life:Rosten was born into a Yiddish-speaking family in what is now...
and newspaper magnate Leo Lerner
Leo Lerner
Leo A. Lerner was an American newspaper editor and publisher, who founded Lerner Newspapers in Chicago, Illinois, at one time the largest chain of weekly newspapers in the world....
. Afterwards, he attended the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
and its law school
University of Chicago Law School
The University of Chicago Law School was founded in 1902 as the graduate school of law at the University of Chicago and is among the most prestigious and selective law schools in the world. The U.S. News & World Report currently ranks it fifth among U.S...
. He received his law degree
Law degree
A Law degree is an academic degree conferred for studies in law. Such degrees are generally preparation for legal careers; but while their curricula may be reviewed by legal authority, they do not themselves confer a license...
in 1930 and went to work in the firm of the well-connected Jacob Arvey
Jacob Arvey
Jacob M. Arvey was aninfluential Chicago political leader from the Depression era until the mid-1950s. He may be best-known for his efforts to end corruption in the Chicago Democratic organization, and for promoting the candidacies of liberal Democratic politicians such as Adlai Stevenson and...
. He would remain there for another 14 years.
He remained involved in education throughout his life, teaching a civil rights class at John Marshall Law School
John Marshall Law School (Chicago)
The John Marshall Law School is a law school in Chicago, Illinois, that was founded in 1899 and accredited by the American Bar Association in 1941. The school was named for the influential nineteenth century U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall....
until his death.
Legal career
As a law student, Gertz had been inspired by Clarence DarrowClarence Darrow
Clarence Seward Darrow was an American lawyer and leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union, best known for defending teenage thrill killers Leopold and Loeb in their trial for murdering 14-year-old Robert "Bobby" Franks and defending John T...
's famous argument against the death penalty in the Leopold-Loeb trial. He himself achieved national fame when he won parole
Parole
Parole may have different meanings depending on the field and judiciary system. All of the meanings originated from the French parole . Following its use in late-resurrected Anglo-French chivalric practice, the term became associated with the release of prisoners based on prisoners giving their...
for Nathan Leopold, the surviving half of the infamous thrill-killing duo, in 1958. He made a point of walking out of the prison gates with his client.
He and Miller became good friends after he persuaded a court to lift the ban on Tropic of Cancer, a decision the Supreme Court upheld in 1964's Grove Press, Inc., v. Gerstein.
In the mid-1960s, Gertz emulated his legal inspiration, Clarence Darrow, when he argued against the death sentence
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
handed down to Jack Ruby
Jack Ruby
Jacob Leon Rubenstein , who legally changed his name to Jack Leon Ruby in 1947, was convicted of the November 24, 1963 murder of Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged assassin of President John F. Kennedy. Ruby, who was originally from Chicago, Illinois, was then a nightclub operator in Dallas, Texas...
for killing Lee Harvey Oswald
Lee Harvey Oswald
Lee Harvey Oswald was, according to four government investigations,These were investigations by: the Federal Bureau of Investigation , the Warren Commission , the House Select Committee on Assassinations , and the Dallas Police Department. the sniper who assassinated John F...
. It was overturned, and Ruby, who was terminally ill, served the remaining few years of his life in prison.
In addition to his law practice, he was an adjunct professor teaching Civil Rights Law at The John Marshall Law School in Chicago.
Libel suit against John Birch Society
In 1969 he represented the family of a young man killed by a Chicago police officer. This drew the ire of the John Birch SocietyJohn Birch Society
The John Birch Society is an American political advocacy group that supports anti-communism, limited government, a Constitutional Republic and personal freedom. It has been described as radical right-wing....
, which alleged in an article about the case in its magazine, American Opinion, that he had a criminal record and was part of a Communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
conspiracy to discredit local police departments in order to pave the way for Communist control by a national police force.
He sued the Society for defamation, alleging the report and won a $500,000 judgment. On appeal, the case went all the way to the Supreme Court, which was asked to settle the question of whether or not Gertz was a public figure, who would thus have to prove actual malice
Actual malice
Actual malice in United States law is a condition required to establish libel against public officials or public figures and is defined as "knowledge that the information was false" or that it was published "with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not." Reckless disregard does not...
to win (which he probably could not have). In 1974, the Court ruled in a 5-4 decision that he was not a public figure and that states were free to set their own standards for libel
Slander and libel
Defamation—also called calumny, vilification, traducement, slander , and libel —is the communication of a statement that makes a claim, expressly stated or implied to be factual, that may give an individual, business, product, group, government, or nation a negative image...
when they were alleged by a private figure. Ironically, given his successes in fighting censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
, some of the dissenting justices and other commentators have viewed his victory as limiting First Amendment
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering...
rights.
The case went back to trial where Gertz once again prevailed and won. It ended in 1983 when the Supreme Court declined to hear the John Birch Society's appeal.
A few years later, Gertz and his wife went on a round-the-world, luxury cruise
Cruising (maritime)
Cruising by boat is a lifestyle that involves living for extended time on a boat while traveling from place to place for pleasure. Cruising generally refers to trips of a few days or more, and can extend to round-the-world voyages.- History :...
with the money he won and sent "wish you were here" postcard
Postcard
A postcard or post card is a rectangular piece of thick paper or thin cardboard intended for writing and mailing without an envelope....
s back to Welch and his organization every chance they got.
Political and social activism
In the 1940s, he was active in the fair housing movement, serving on several public bodies devoted to the subject. He presciently warned against the creation of large housing projects, advocating a more scattered approach instead. He also campaigned for the admission of African AmericanAfrican American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
s to the local bar association.
In 1969, he was elected to the Illinois Constitutional Convention, where he chaired the committee on its Bill of Rights, working closely with the committee's legal counsel, Dallin H. Oaks
Dallin H. Oaks
Dallin Harris Oaks is an American attorney, jurist, author, professor, public speaker, and religious leader. Since 1984, he has been a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...
. It has been called the strongest bill of rights of any state constitution at that point in time. A decade later, he chaired the equivalent committees of the Illinois and Chicago bar associations. He also served as chairman of the Lawyers' Association. After his death, the state bar created the Elmer Gertz Award for exceptional dedication to protecting civil liberties.
He received Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
's Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Israel
The Prime Minister of Israel is the head of the Israeli government and the most powerful political figure in Israel . The prime minister is the country's chief executive. The official residence of the prime minister, Beit Rosh Hamemshala is in Jerusalem...
's Medal in 1972 for his service on that country's behalf, and considered that his finest accomplishment.
"Things do change for the better," he assured some students near the end of his life, "very, very slowly."
External links
- Plain Speaking: Elmer Gertz Remembers Harry Truman from American Legends.
- Save Maxwell St. Letter by Gertz urging preservation of Maxwell Street.
- Henry Miller Remembered A further fragment of the American Legends interview.