Morris Ernst
Encyclopedia
Morris Leopold Ernst was an American lawyer and co-founder of the American Civil Liberties Union
.
He was born in Uniontown, Alabama
on Aug. 23, 1888, to a Czech-born father and German mother. He lived in various locations around New York City from the age of 2. He attended the Horace Mann School
and graduated from Williams College
in Williamstown, Massachusetts
in 1909. He was admitted to the bar in 1913 after studying law at night.
, which would later become the American Civil Liberties Union.
From 1929 to 1959, he shared the title of general counsel at the ACLU with Arthur Garfield Hays
. He became vice chairman of the ACLU's board in 1955.
In 1933, on behalf of Random House
he successfully defended James Joyce
's novel Ulysses
against obscenity
charges, leading to its distribution in the U.S. Because he wrote the foreword to the book, he was compensated with royalties on the sales of it, ultimately earning several hundred thousand dollars. He won similar cases on behalf of Radclyffe Hall
's The Well of Loneliness
and Arthur Schnitzler
's Casanova's Homecoming
.
In 1937, as attorney for the American Newspaper Guild, he persuaded the Supreme Court to uphold the constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Act
(the Wagner Act) as applied to the press, establishing the right of media employees to organize labor unions.
Ernst was a strong supporter of J. Edgar Hoover
and the FBI
. In 1940, as head of the ACLU, he agreed to bar communists
from employment there and even discouraged their membership, basing his position on a distinction between the rights of the individual and the rights of groups.
He counted Justice Louis Brandeis
as a close friend and later had close personal relationships with Presidents Franklin Roosevelt
and Harry Truman
and New York Governor Herbert Lehman
. Besides politicians, he also was friendly with many cultural icons, such as Edna Ferber
, E. B. White
, Groucho Marx
, Compton Mackenzie
, Al Capp
, Charles Addams
, Grandma Moses
, Heywood Broun
, and Margaret Bourke White.
Perhaps his most controversial case found him on the opposite side from his political allies. In 1956, Jesús Galíndez
, a critic of the regime of Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic
, disappeared, abducted from New York City, it was charged, by Trujillo's agents. Hired by Trujillo to investigate the affair, Ernst's resulting report cleared the Trujillo regime of involvement in Galindez's disappearance, but the FBI and the press remained unconvinced.
and enjoyed sailing small boats. He died at home in New York City
on May 21, 1976.
Morris Ernst's papers are housed at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin
.
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union is a U.S. non-profit organization whose stated mission is "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States." It works through litigation, legislation, and...
.
He was born in Uniontown, Alabama
Uniontown, Alabama
Uniontown is a city in Perry County, Alabama in the United States of America. As of the 2000 census, the population of the city is 1,636. The current mayor is Jamaal O. Hunter.-History:...
on Aug. 23, 1888, to a Czech-born father and German mother. He lived in various locations around New York City from the age of 2. He attended the Horace Mann School
Horace Mann School
Horace Mann School is an independent college preparatory school in New York City, New York, United States founded in 1887 known for its rigorous course of studies. Horace Mann is a member of the Ivy Preparatory School League, educating students from all across the New York tri-state area from...
and graduated from Williams College
Williams College
Williams College is a private liberal arts college located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams. Originally a men's college, Williams became co-educational in 1970. Fraternities were also phased out during this...
in Williamstown, Massachusetts
Williamstown, Massachusetts
Williamstown is a town in Berkshire County, in the northwest corner of Massachusetts. It shares a border with Vermont to the north and New York to the west. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 7,754 at the 2010 census...
in 1909. He was admitted to the bar in 1913 after studying law at night.
Career
Ernst practiced law in New York City and in 1915 co-founded the law firm of Greenbaum, Wolff & Ernst. In 1917, he helped found the National Civil Liberties BureauNational Civil Liberties Bureau
The National Civil Liberties Bureau was an American civil rights organization. In 1920, it changed its name to the American Civil Liberties Union ....
, which would later become the American Civil Liberties Union.
From 1929 to 1959, he shared the title of general counsel at the ACLU with Arthur Garfield Hays
Arthur Garfield Hays
Arthur Garfield Hays was a lawyer born in Rochester, New York. His father and mother, both of German descent, belonged to prospering families in the clothing manufacturing industry...
. He became vice chairman of the ACLU's board in 1955.
In 1933, on behalf of Random House
Random House
Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
he successfully defended James Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
's novel Ulysses
Ulysses (novel)
Ulysses is a novel by the Irish author James Joyce. It was first serialised in parts in the American journal The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920, and then published in its entirety by Sylvia Beach on 2 February 1922, in Paris. One of the most important works of Modernist literature,...
against 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...
charges, leading to its distribution in the U.S. Because he wrote the foreword to the book, he was compensated with royalties on the sales of it, ultimately earning several hundred thousand dollars. He won similar cases on behalf of Radclyffe Hall
Radclyffe Hall
Radclyffe Hall was an English poet and author, best known for the lesbian classic The Well of Loneliness.- Life :...
's The Well of Loneliness
The Well of Loneliness
The Well of Loneliness is a 1928 lesbian novel by the British author Radclyffe Hall. It follows the life of Stephen Gordon, an Englishwoman from an upper-class family whose "sexual inversion" is apparent from an early age...
and Arthur Schnitzler
Arthur Schnitzler
Dr. Arthur Schnitzler was an Austrian author and dramatist.- Biography :Arthur Schnitzler, son of a prominent Hungarian-Jewish laryngologist Johann Schnitzler and Luise Markbreiter , was born in Praterstraße 16, Leopoldstadt, Vienna, in the Austro-Hungarian...
's Casanova's Homecoming
Casanova's Homecoming
Casanova's Homecoming is an opera in three acts by Dominick Argento to an English libretto by the composer, based in part on Giacomo Casanova's memoirs. It was first performed by the Minnesota Opera in Saint Paul, Minnesota in 1985....
.
In 1937, as attorney for the American Newspaper Guild, he persuaded the Supreme Court to uphold the constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Act
National Labor Relations Act
The National Labor Relations Act or Wagner Act , is a 1935 United States federal law that limits the means with which employers may react to workers in the private sector who create labor unions , engage in collective bargaining, and take part in strikes and other forms of concerted activity in...
(the Wagner Act) as applied to the press, establishing the right of media employees to organize labor unions.
Ernst was a strong supporter of J. Edgar Hoover
J. Edgar Hoover
John Edgar Hoover was the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States. Appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation—predecessor to the FBI—in 1924, he was instrumental in founding the FBI in 1935, where he remained director until his death in 1972...
and the FBI
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...
. In 1940, as head of the ACLU, he agreed to bar communists
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...
from employment there and even discouraged their membership, basing his position on a distinction between the rights of the individual and the rights of groups.
He counted Justice Louis Brandeis
Louis Brandeis
Louis Dembitz Brandeis ; November 13, 1856 – October 5, 1941) was an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States from 1916 to 1939.He was born in Louisville, Kentucky, to Jewish immigrant parents who raised him in a secular mode...
as a close friend and later had close personal relationships with Presidents Franklin Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
and Harry Truman
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...
and New York Governor Herbert Lehman
Herbert H. Lehman
Herbert Henry Lehman was a Democratic Party politician from New York. He was the 45th Governor of New York from 1933 to 1942, and represented New York in the United States Senate from 1950 to 1957.-Lehman Brothers:...
. Besides politicians, he also was friendly with many cultural icons, such as Edna Ferber
Edna Ferber
Edna Ferber was an American novelist, short story writer and playwright. Her novels were especially popular and included the Pulitzer Prize-winning So Big , Show Boat , and Giant .-Early years:Ferber was born August 15, 1885, in Kalamazoo, Michigan,...
, E. B. White
E. B. White
Elwyn Brooks White , usually known as E. B. White, was an American writer. A long-time contributor to The New Yorker magazine, he also wrote many famous books for both adults and children, such as the popular Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little, and co-authored a widely used writing guide, The...
, Groucho Marx
Groucho Marx
Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx was an American comedian and film star famed as a master of wit. His rapid-fire delivery of innuendo-laden patter earned him many admirers. He made 13 feature films with his siblings the Marx Brothers, of whom he was the third-born...
, Compton Mackenzie
Compton Mackenzie
Sir Compton Mackenzie, OBE was a writer and a Scottish nationalist.-Background:Compton Mackenzie was born in West Hartlepool, England, into a theatrical family of Mackenzies, but many of whose members used Compton as their stage surname, starting with his grandfather Henry Compton, a well-known...
, Al Capp
Al Capp
Alfred Gerald Caplin , better known as Al Capp, was an American cartoonist and humorist best known for the satirical comic strip Li'l Abner. He also wrote the comic strips Abbie an' Slats and Long Sam...
, Charles Addams
Charles Addams
Charles "Chas" Samuel Addams was an American cartoonist known for his particularly black humor and macabre characters...
, Grandma Moses
Grandma Moses
Anna Mary Robertson Moses , better known as "Grandma Moses", was a renowned American folk artist. She is often cited as an example of an individual successfully beginning a career in the arts at an advanced age. Although her family and friends called her either "Mother Moses" or "Grandma Moses,"...
, Heywood Broun
Heywood Broun
Heywood Campbell Broun, Jr. was an American journalist. He worked as a sportswriter, newspaper columnist, and editor in New York City. He founded the American Newspaper Guild, now known as The Newspaper Guild. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he is best remembered for his writing on social issues and...
, and Margaret Bourke White.
Perhaps his most controversial case found him on the opposite side from his political allies. In 1956, Jesús Galíndez
Jesús Galíndez
Jesús Galíndez Suárez was a Spanish writer who disappeared in New York City. He was allegedly kidnapped and murdered by henchmen of Rafael Trujillo, dictator of the Dominican Republic.-Biography:...
, a critic of the regime of Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
, disappeared, abducted from New York City, it was charged, by Trujillo's agents. Hired by Trujillo to investigate the affair, Ernst's resulting report cleared the Trujillo regime of involvement in Galindez's disappearance, but the FBI and the press remained unconvinced.
Personal Life
In 1912 he married Susan Leerburger, with whom he had a son who died in infancy and a daughter. Susan died in 1922. Ernst married Margaret Samuels in 1923, and together they had a son and a daughter and five grandkids. Margaret died in 1964. Ernst kept a summer home on NantucketNantucket, Massachusetts
Nantucket is an island south of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in the United States. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck and Muskeget, it constitutes the town of Nantucket, Massachusetts, and the coterminous Nantucket County, which are consolidated. Part of the town is designated the Nantucket...
and enjoyed sailing small boats. He died at home 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...
on May 21, 1976.
Morris Ernst's papers are housed at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...
.
Published works
- Hold your tongue!: Adventures in Libel and Slander (1932)
- America's Primer (1931)
- The Ultimate Power (1937)
- Too Big (1940)
- Foreword to Ulysses' (1942)
- The Best is Yet: Reflections of an Irrepressible Man (1945)
- The First Freedom (1946)
- So Far, So Good (1948)
- Report on the American Communist (1952)
- Touch Wood: A Year's Diary (1960)
- Untitled: The Diary of my 72nd Year (1962)
- The Pandect of C.L.D. (1965)
- The teacher, (editor, 1967)
- The Comparative International Almanac (1967)
- A Love Affair with the Law (1968)
- Utopia 1976 (1969)
- The Great Reversals: Tales of the Supreme Court (1973)
- Co-authored
- with William Seagle, To the Pure: A Study of Obscenity And the Censor (1928)
- with Pare Lorentz, Censored: The Private Life of the Movies (1930)
- with Alexander Lindey Hold Your Tongue!: Adventures in Libel and Slander (1932)
- contributor to Sex in the Arts (1932)
- contributor to The Sex Life of the Unmarried Adult (1934)
- with Alexander Lindey The Censor Marches On: Recent Milestones in the Administration of the Obscenity Law in the United States (1940)
- with David Loth American Sexual Behavior and the Kinsey Report (1948)
- with David Loth The People Know Best: The Ballot vs. the Poll (1949)
- with David Loth, For Better Or Worse: New Approach to Marriage & Divorce (1952)
- with Alexander Lindy, Hold Your Tongue! The Layman's Guide to Libel and Slander (1950)
- with David Loth, Report on the American Communist (1952, 1962)
- with Alan Schwartz Privacy: The Right to be Let Alone (1962)
- with Alan Schwartz Censorship: The Search for the Obscene (1964)
- with David Loth How High Is Up?: Modern Law for Modern Man (1964)
- with Alan Schwarz Lawyers and What They Do (1965)
- with Eleanora B. Black Triple Cross Tricks (1968)
- with Malcolm A. Hoffmann Back and Forth: An Occasional, Casual Communication (1969)
- with David Loth The Taming of Technology (1972)
- contributor to Newsbreak (1974)
External Links
- New York Times: "Morris Ernst, 'Ulysses' Case Lawyer, Dies," May 23, 1976