William Moses Kunstler in the United States
Kunstler William Moses
Introduction to William Moses Kunstler
William Moses Kunstler (1919-1995), American attorney best known for his principled but controversial representation of so-called radical clients of the political left. Born in New York City, Kunstler was educated at Yale University and received his Bachelor of Laws degree from Columbia University School of Law in 1948. After admission to the New York bar, he and his brother became partners in their own law firm. The brothers worked through the 1950s on marriage, estate, and business law, and occasionally represented the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
In 1961 the ACLU sent Kunstler to Mississippi to help defend arrested Freedom Riders, members of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) who traveled around the South on buses to test segregation at interstate bus facilities. Seeing the bravery of the civil rights workers firsthand was a transforming experience for Kunstler, who thereafter devoted his career to helping the disadvantaged. During the 1960s he held a number of civil rights-related positions, including special counsel for Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference; legal adviser to the Council of Federated Organizations; general counsel for the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party; counsel for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC); and director of the Gandhi Society for Human Rights. He also represented such notable clients as Stokely Carmichael and H. Rap Brown, well-known spokesmen for the Black Power movement; Congressman Adam Clayton Powell; and Daniel and Philip Berrigan, two Roman Catholic priests who had protested the draft for the Vietnam War (1959-1975).
Perhaps Kunstler’s most famous case was his defense of the Chicago Seven, a group charged with conspiracy to incite violence at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Conducted in 1969 and 1970 in a circus-like atmosphere, the trial resulted in acquittal on the conspiracy charges for all the defendants and enhanced Kunstler’s reputation as a courageous radical attorney willing to support unpopular clients.
Over the next 25 years Kunstler came to be considered the ‘people’s lawyer.’ In defending clients charged with flag-burning, he convinced the Supreme Court that the act constituted a form of free speech. He represented defendants in trials for the 1990 assassination of Jewish Defense League leader Rabbi Meir Kahane and the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City, and he also defended several prominent Mafia figures. Kunstler wrote extensively, producing both legal texts and memoirs of his work.” (1)
Resources
Notes and References
- Information about William Moses Kunstler in the Encarta Online Encyclopedia
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