Harold I. Cammer
Encyclopedia
Harold I. Cammer was an American
lawyer
who co-founded the National Lawyers Guild
. He was known for his participation in labor law
, civil rights, peace and justice issues, and freedom of speech cases; in particular, defending those accused of communist leanings.
in New York City
to Harry and Anne (Boriskin) Cammer, poor immigrants from the Russian Empire
. He attended New York City public schools and received a Bachelor of Arts
degree in 1929 from City College
. He attended Harvard Law School
on a full scholarship, receiving a Doctor of Law degree
(cum laude) in 1932. He married the former Florence Glantz on January 25, 1936; the couple had two children, Robert and Margaret.
He began practicing law with the firm of Boudin & Wittenberg from 1932 to 1933, and Zalkin & Cohen from 1933 to 1936. In 1936, he joined his long-time friend Lee Pressman
in the firm of Liebman, Robbins, Pressman & Leider, and stayed with the firm until 1941. In 1937, Cammer was one of the co-founders of the National Lawyers Guild, the nation's first racially integrated
bar association
and an organization dedicated to achieving economic, racial, and social justice through the legal system. The National Lawyers Guild was branded a communist front
by the Federal Bureau of Investigation
, the United States Department of Justice
, and (later) the House Un-American Activities Committee
(HUAC). After his friend, Nathan Witt
, resigned from the National Labor Relations Board
following accusations in December 1940 that he was a member of the Communist Party
(CPUSA), Cammer formed the law firm of Witt & Cammer in 1941.
Cammer interrupted his legal career to serve in the United States military during World War II.
perjury case, the result of his involvement in the 1930s in the so-called "Ware group" of communist sympathizers at the United States Department of Agriculture
. HUAC began investigating Pressman and Witt (also a member of the group) and the stress began to wear Pressman down, even causing him to become paranoid to a degree. Pressmen left the firm peremptorily in 1949. Testifying again before HUAC in 1950, Pressman named Witt as a member of the CPUSA and the Ware group. Cammer represented Witt and fellow attorney John Abt
before HUAC in the 1950 hearings.
Cammer's legal practice focused on labor law. Among his clients were the Congress of Industrial Organizations
(CIO), the United Brewery Workers
union, the Teachers Guild (a forerunner to the United Federation of Teachers
of New York City), the Teachers Union (a local union which had been ejected by the American Federation of Teachers
for being communist-dominated and which, in the 1950s, belonged to the United Public Workers of America
), the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers
, the International Fur & Leather Workers Union
, the Bakery, Confectionery and Tobacco Workers
union, the International Woodworkers of America
, the United Public Workers of America, and the Amalgamated Meat Cutters
. In 1945, he also helped represent the Seamen's Joint Action Committee, a CIO-backed insurgent group which allied with three CIO longshoremen's
unions to challenge corrupt International Longshoremen's Association
president Joseph Ryan. In many cases, he represented union members and others who had been accused of being members of the CPUSA or harboring communist views. In 1968, Cammer played a different role in labor union issues. He served as the New York City Public Schools trial examiner in a case involving several teachers disciplined outside the collective bargaining
agreement with the United Federation of Teachers. His involvement was part of the circumstances which led to the Ocean Hill-Brownsville strike.
Cammer was chief defense counsel for Fur and Leather Workers' Union President Ben Gold
after Gold was accused of lying when he submitted his Taft-Hartley Act
-required anti-communist oath. Cammer was held in contempt of court
in June 1954 for sending a questionnaire to potential grand jurors in the case. Although Cammer lost his appeal, a unanimous Supreme Court of the United States
overturned his conviction in Cammer v. United States, 350 U.S. 399 (1956).
Cammer was interested in more than labor law issues. He worked as a pro bono
attorney in the civil rights movement during the 1950s and 1960s. He also defended nearly 700 students arrested during the Columbia University protests of 1968
. Cammer and his son, Robert Cammer (also an attorney) were members of the Lawyers Committee on American Policy Towards Vietnam. In 1965, they wrote a widely circulated memorandum entitled "American Policy Vis-a-Vis Vietnam" which concluded that American involvement in the Vietnam War
was illegal.
After Witt retired, Ralph Shapiro was elevated to partner and Cammer's firm changed its name to Cammer & Shapiro.
Cammer's papers are held at the Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Archives
at New York University
.
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...
who co-founded the National Lawyers Guild
National Lawyers Guild
The National Lawyers Guild 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 . ....
. He was known for his participation in labor law
United States labor law
United States labor law is a heterogeneous collection of state and federal laws. Federal law not only sets the standards that govern workers' rights to organize in the private sector, but also overrides most state and local laws that attempt to regulate this area. Federal law also provides more...
, civil rights, peace and justice issues, and freedom of speech cases; in particular, defending those accused of communist leanings.
Early life
Cammer was born in June 1909 in the borough of ManhattanManhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
to Harry and Anne (Boriskin) Cammer, poor immigrants from the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
. He attended New York City public schools and received a Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
degree in 1929 from City College
City College of New York
The City College of the City University of New York is a senior college of the City University of New York , in New York City. It is also the oldest of the City University's twenty-three institutions of higher learning...
. He attended Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
on a full scholarship, receiving a Doctor of Law degree
Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor is a professional doctorate and first professional graduate degree in law.The degree was first awarded by Harvard University in the United States in the late 19th century and was created as a modern version of the old European doctor of law degree Juris Doctor (see etymology and...
(cum laude) in 1932. He married the former Florence Glantz on January 25, 1936; the couple had two children, Robert and Margaret.
He began practicing law with the firm of Boudin & Wittenberg from 1932 to 1933, and Zalkin & Cohen from 1933 to 1936. In 1936, he joined his long-time friend Lee Pressman
Lee Pressman
Lee Pressman was a labor attorney and a US government functionary publicly exposed in 1948 for having been a spy for the Soviet foreign intelligence network during the middle 1930s...
in the firm of Liebman, Robbins, Pressman & Leider, and stayed with the firm until 1941. In 1937, Cammer was one of the co-founders of the National Lawyers Guild, the nation's first racially integrated
Racial integration
Racial integration, or simply integration includes desegregation . In addition to desegregation, integration includes goals such as leveling barriers to association, creating equal opportunity regardless of race, and the development of a culture that draws on diverse traditions, rather than merely...
bar association
Bar association
A bar association is a professional body of lawyers. Some bar associations are responsible for the regulation of the legal profession in their jurisdiction; others are professional organizations dedicated to serving their members; in many cases, they are both...
and an organization dedicated to achieving economic, racial, and social justice through the legal system. The National Lawyers Guild was branded a communist front
Communist front
A Communist front organization is an organization identified to be a front organization under the effective control of a Communist party, the Communist International or other Communist organizations. Lenin originated the idea in his manifesto of 1902, "What Is to Be Done?"...
by the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
, the United States Department of Justice
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
, and (later) the House Un-American Activities Committee
House Un-American Activities Committee
The House Committee on Un-American Activities or House Un-American Activities Committee was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives. In 1969, the House changed the committee's name to "House Committee on Internal Security"...
(HUAC). After his friend, Nathan Witt
Nathan Witt
Nathan Witt was an American lawyer who is best known as being the Secretary of the National Labor Relations Board from 1937 to 1940...
, resigned from the National Labor Relations Board
National Labor Relations Board
The National Labor Relations Board is an independent agency of the United States government charged with conducting elections for labor union representation and with investigating and remedying unfair labor practices. Unfair labor practices may involve union-related situations or instances of...
following accusations in December 1940 that he was a member of the Communist Party
Communist Party USA
The Communist Party USA is a Marxist political party in the United States, established in 1919. It has a long, complex history that is closely related to the histories of similar communist parties worldwide and the U.S. labor movement....
(CPUSA), Cammer formed the law firm of Witt & Cammer in 1941.
Cammer interrupted his legal career to serve in the United States military during World War II.
Later legal career
After the war, Cammer returned to the firm of Witt & Cammer. The firm changed its name briefly to Pressman, Witt & Cammer after Lee Pressman joined it in 1948, But Pressman became caught up in the Alger HissAlger Hiss
Alger Hiss was an American lawyer, government official, author, and lecturer. He was involved in the establishment of the United Nations both as a U.S. State Department and U.N. official...
perjury case, the result of his involvement in the 1930s in the so-called "Ware group" of communist sympathizers at the United States Department of Agriculture
United States Department of Agriculture
The United States Department of Agriculture is the United States federal executive department responsible for developing and executing U.S. federal government policy on farming, agriculture, and food...
. HUAC began investigating Pressman and Witt (also a member of the group) and the stress began to wear Pressman down, even causing him to become paranoid to a degree. Pressmen left the firm peremptorily in 1949. Testifying again before HUAC in 1950, Pressman named Witt as a member of the CPUSA and the Ware group. Cammer represented Witt and fellow attorney John Abt
John Abt
John Jacob Abt was an American lawyer and politician. He spent most of his career as chief counsel to the Communist Party USA ....
before HUAC in the 1950 hearings.
Cammer's legal practice focused on labor law. Among his clients were the Congress of Industrial Organizations
Congress of Industrial Organizations
The Congress of Industrial Organizations, or CIO, proposed by John L. Lewis in 1932, was a federation of unions that organized workers in industrial unions in the United States and Canada from 1935 to 1955. The Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 required union leaders to swear that they were not...
(CIO), the United Brewery Workers
International Union of United Brewery, Flour, Cereal, Soft Drink and Distillery Workers
The International Union of United Brewery, Flour, Cereal, Soft Drink and Distillery Workers was an labor union in the United States. The union merged with the Teamsters in 1973.-Early history:...
union, the Teachers Guild (a forerunner to the United Federation of Teachers
United Federation of Teachers
The United Federation of Teachers is the labor union that represents most educators in New York City public schools. , there were about 118,000 in-service educators and 17,000 paraprofessionals in the union, as well as about 54,000 retired members...
of New York City), the Teachers Union (a local union which had been ejected by the American Federation of Teachers
American Federation of Teachers
The American Federation of Teachers is an American labor union founded in 1916 that represents teachers, paraprofessionals and school-related personnel; local, state and federal employees; higher education faculty and staff, and nurses and other healthcare professionals...
for being communist-dominated and which, in the 1950s, belonged to the United Public Workers of America
United Public Workers of America
The United Public Workers of America was an American labor union representing federal, state, county, and local government employees which existed from 1946 to 1952. The union challenged the constitutionality of the Hatch Act of 1939, which prohibited federal executive branch employees from...
), the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers
Western Federation of Miners
The Western Federation of Miners was a radical labor union that gained a reputation for militancy in the mines of the western United States and British Columbia. Its efforts to organize both hard rock miners and smelter workers brought it into sharp conflicts – and often pitched battles...
, the International Fur & Leather Workers Union
International Fur & Leather Workers Union
The International Fur and Leather Workers Union , was a labor union that represented workers in the fur and leather trades. The IFLWU was founded in 1913 and affiliated with the American Federation of Labor ....
, the Bakery, Confectionery and Tobacco Workers
Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers' International Union
The Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers' International Union is a labor union in the United States and Canada. It has a membership of 100,000...
union, the International Woodworkers of America
International Woodworkers of America
International Woodworkers of America was an industrial union of lumbermen, sawmill workers, timber transportation workers and others formed in 1937....
, the United Public Workers of America, and the Amalgamated Meat Cutters
Amalgamated Meat Cutters
The Amalgamated Meat Cutters , officially the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America, was a labor union that represented retail butchers and packinghouse workers.-History:...
. In 1945, he also helped represent the Seamen's Joint Action Committee, a CIO-backed insurgent group which allied with three CIO longshoremen's
Stevedore
Stevedore, dockworker, docker, dock labourer, wharfie and longshoreman can have various waterfront-related meanings concerning loading and unloading ships, according to place and country....
unions to challenge corrupt International Longshoremen's Association
International Longshoremen's Association
The International Longshoremen's Association is a labor union representing longshore workers along the East Coast of the United States and Canada, the Gulf Coast, the Great Lakes, Puerto Rico, and inland waterways...
president Joseph Ryan. In many cases, he represented union members and others who had been accused of being members of the CPUSA or harboring communist views. In 1968, Cammer played a different role in labor union issues. He served as the New York City Public Schools trial examiner in a case involving several teachers disciplined outside the collective bargaining
Collective bargaining
Collective bargaining is a process of negotiations between employers and the representatives of a unit of employees aimed at reaching agreements that regulate working conditions...
agreement with the United Federation of Teachers. His involvement was part of the circumstances which led to the Ocean Hill-Brownsville strike.
Cammer was chief defense counsel for Fur and Leather Workers' Union President Ben Gold
Ben Gold
Benjamin Gold was an American labor leader who was prosecuted for his communist political views under McCarthyism. He was president of the International Fur and Leather Workers Union from 1937 to 1955.-Early life:...
after Gold was accused of lying when he submitted his Taft-Hartley Act
Taft-Hartley Act
The Labor–Management Relations Act is a United States federal law that monitors the activities and power of labor unions. The act, still effective, was sponsored by Senator Robert Taft and Representative Fred A. Hartley, Jr. and became law by overriding U.S. President Harry S...
-required anti-communist oath. Cammer was held in contempt of court
Contempt of court
Contempt of court is a court order which, in the context of a court trial or hearing, declares a person or organization to have disobeyed or been disrespectful of the court's authority...
in June 1954 for sending a questionnaire to potential grand jurors in the case. Although Cammer lost his appeal, a unanimous Supreme Court of the United States
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
overturned his conviction in Cammer v. United States, 350 U.S. 399 (1956).
Cammer was interested in more than labor law issues. He worked as a pro bono
Pro bono
Pro bono publico is a Latin phrase generally used to describe professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment or at a reduced fee as a public service. It is common in the legal profession and is increasingly seen in marketing, technology, and strategy consulting firms...
attorney in the civil rights movement during the 1950s and 1960s. He also defended nearly 700 students arrested during the Columbia University protests of 1968
Columbia University protests of 1968
The Columbia University protests of 1968 were among the many student demonstrations that occurred around the world in that year. The Columbia protests erupted over the spring of that year after students discovered links between the university and the institutional apparatus supporting the United...
. Cammer and his son, Robert Cammer (also an attorney) were members of the Lawyers Committee on American Policy Towards Vietnam. In 1965, they wrote a widely circulated memorandum entitled "American Policy Vis-a-Vis Vietnam" which concluded that American involvement in the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
was illegal.
After Witt retired, Ralph Shapiro was elevated to partner and Cammer's firm changed its name to Cammer & Shapiro.
Retirement and death
Cammer retired from an active legal practice in the mid-1980s. He died at his home in Mamaroneck, New York, on October 21, 1995. He was survived by his wife, son, daughter, grandson, and two great-granddaughters.Cammer's papers are held at the Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Archives
Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Archives
The Tamiment Library is a research library at New York University that documents radical and left history, with strengths in the histories of communism, socialism, anarchism, the New Left, the Civil Rights Movement, and utopian experiments. The Robert F. Wagner Archives, which is also housed in...
at New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
.