[lbo-talk] Doris Walker and Ann Gagan Ginger

andie nachgeborenen andie_nachgeborenen at yahoo.com
Thu Sep 24 09:57:40 PDT 2009


I see nothing in her obits or biographical info that says that Doris Brin Walker was a Nuremberg prosecutor. She had only graduated law school (the only woman in her class at Berkeley) in '42, and she was a really OUT red. She recruited Jessica Mitford to the CP -- Mitford was the mutual friend who told JK Rowling about her nickname "Dobby." The Davis case was her most high profile one, but her lonely defense of Communists during the first cold war laid the groundwork for Yates v. U.S., which essentially made it legal to be a communist in the US, burying, for practical purposes, the Smith Act under which the CP leadership was convicted and imprisoned in the late 409s.

The Smith Act, 18 USC 2385, is still on the books, never repealed, in case it's needed, making it a crime for anyone to:

knowingly or willfully advocate, abet, advise or teach the duty, necessity, desirability or propriety of overthrowing the Government of the United States or of any State by force or violence, or for anyone to organize any association which teaches, advises or encourages such an overthrow, or for anyone to become a member of or to affiliate with any such association.

There has not been a Smith Act prosecution since Yates in 1957.

As a law student in 1971 Hilary Rodham Clinton interned at Walker's law firm, Treuhaft, Walker, and Burnstein (Bob Treuhaft was Jessica Mitford's husband, btw), during the prep for Angela Davis trial. Obviously it didn't take.

Ray Ginger, Ann Fagan Ginger's husband, wrote the classic bio of Eugene Debs, The Bending Cross.

Andie

--- On Thu, 9/24/09, cb31450 <cb31450 at gmail.com> wrote:


> From: cb31450 <cb31450 at gmail.com>
> Subject: [lbo-talk] Doris Walker and Ann Gagan Ginger
> To: "lbo-talk" <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org>
> Date: Thursday, September 24, 2009, 11:20 AM
> Chuck Grimes ------------
> I was asked about Doris Brin Walker and Ann Gagan Ginger
> today, and I
> had completely forgotten them. I didn't know them. They
> were two
> radical Berkeley lawyers who made important contributions
> to civil
> rights, human rights, keeping government honest, stopping
> the endless
> stream of legal and physical abuse coming from the state,
> etc. They
> were very active in 60s rad politics here.
>
> ^^^^^
> CB: Thanks very much for this , Chuck, on my two comrades.
>
> Good news ! Ann is still alive ! (smile). If you get a
> chance, I'm
> sure she'd be glad to meet you.
>
> Doris died about a month ago. If memory serves me, not only
> was she
> one of Angela Davis' defense attorneys, she was a
> prosecutor at the
> Nuremberg trials
>
>
>
> Ann Fagan Ginger
>
> Ann Fagan Ginger (born July 11, 1925) is an American
> lawyer, teacher,
> writer, and political activist. She is a founder and the
> executive
> director of the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute.
>
> Ginger practiced law for many years in Berkeley,
> California. She has
> been a visiting professor of law at a number of schools in
> California
> and Washington, is the author of many books and articles,
> and lectures
> widely. She is an expert in civil liberties law and peace
> law under
> the statutes of the United States and the United Nations,
> and has
> argued and won before the U.S. Supreme Court.
>
> Ann Fagan Ginger is the first wife of historian and author
> Ray Ginger
> (1924 – 1975).
>
> [edit] Partial list of works
> California Criminal Law Practice (vol. I)
> California Criminal Law Practice (vol. II)
> The cold war against labor
> Human rights casefinder, 1953—1969
> The law, the Supreme Court, and the people's rights (1977)
> The National Lawy Guide
> Jury Selection in Civil and Criminal Trials
> The National Lawyers Guild From Roosevelt through Reagan
> (ed.)
> Nuclear Weapons Are Illegal: The Historic Opinion of the
> World Court
> and How It Will Be Enforced Summary
> The relevant lawyers;: Conversations out of court on their
> clients,
> their practice, their politics, their life style
> Carol Weiss King: Human Rights Lawyer (1895-52)
> Challenging U.S. Human Rights Violations since 9/11 Table
> of Contents
> Landmark Cases Left Out Of Your Textbooks (ed.) [2006]
> The Living Constitution (ed.) [2007]
> Undoing The Bush-Cheney Legacy: A Tool Kit for Congress and
> Activists
> (ed.) [2008]
> The U.N. Declaration of Human Rights Is the Law: A Guide to
> U.D.H.R.
> Articles in Treaties Ratified by the U.S. (ed.) [2009]
>
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>



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