Albert Morris Bendich (June 18, 1929 – January 5, 2015) was a professor of rhetoric at UC Berkeley, active during the Free Speech Movement (1964-1965), as well as a civil rights attorney, noted for his roles in defending the free speech rights of poet

Allen Ginsberg Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Gener ...

and comedian Lenny Bruce against obscenity charges. Bendich was the ACLU of Northern California's staff counsel from 1957 to 1960. He later became counsel to

Saul Zaentz Saul Zaentz (; February 28, 1921January 3, 2014) was an American film producer and record company executive. He won the Academy Award for Best Picture three times and, in 1996, was awarded the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. Zaentz's film p ...

and a partner at Fantasy/Galaxy records and the Saul Zaentz independent film production company. A quote from his brief during the Howl prosecution: "Would there be any freedom of the press or speech if one must reduce his vocabulary to vapid and innocuous euphemisms? An author should be real in treating his subject and be allowed to express his thoughts and ideas in his own words. – Al Bendich (brief in People v. Ferlinghetti, 1957) He was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. His first marriage to Hilary Bendich (nee Solomon) ended in divorce. Bendich died after an apparent heart attack in 2015.

Cases Litigated

's "Howl" * Lenny Bruce's comedy routine * '' Parrish v. Civil Service Commission'' (1967 Cal. Sup. Court) * Board of Trustees v. Jack Owens (see, e.g. Neglected Landmark: California's Jack Owens Case https://www.jstor/stable/20343126)

References

External links

NYT Obituary
* Tribute to Al Bendic

Lawyers from New York City Free speech activists 1929 births 2015 deaths American Civil Liberties Union people Activists from New York (state) 20th-century American lawyers {{US-law-bio-stub