Boris Irving Bittker (November 28, 1916 – September 8, 2005) was an American legal scholar. A professor at

Yale Law School Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by ''U ...

, Bittker was a prolific author, writing many textbooks and over one hundred articles on

tax law Tax law or revenue law is an area of legal study in which public or sanctioned authorities, such as federal, state and municipal governments (as in the case of the US) use a body of rules and procedures (laws) to assess and collect taxes in a ...

. Born in

Rochester, New York Rochester () is a City (New York), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, the county seat, seat of Monroe County, New York, Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffalo, ...

, Bittker attended

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

('38) and Yale Law School ('41). After law school, Bittker

clerk A clerk is a white-collar worker who conducts general office tasks, or a worker who performs similar sales-related tasks in a retail environment. The responsibilities of clerical workers commonly include record keeping, filing, staffing service ...

ed for Judge

Jerome Frank Jerome New Frank (September 10, 1889 – January 13, 1957) was an American legal philosopher and author who played a leading role in the legal realism movement. He was Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and a United States circu ...

of the

United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (in case citations, 2d Cir.) is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals. Its territory comprises the states of Connecticut, New York and Vermont. The court has appellate juri ...

. From 1942 to 43 Bittker worked as an attorney for the

Lend-Lease Administration Lend-Lease, formally the Lend-Lease Act and introduced as An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States (), was a policy under which the United States supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and other Allied nations with food, oil, ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

On May 24, 1943, he joined the United States Army. During the next two years Bittker fought and was wounded in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, receiving a

Purple Heart The Purple Heart (PH) is a United States military decoration awarded in the name of the President to those wounded or killed while serving, on or after 5 April 1917, with the U.S. military. With its forerunner, the Badge of Military Merit, w ...

. He served with the 42nd Infantry Division in France."Anne Stern Wed To Boris Bittker"
''The Courier-News'', July 29, 1949, page 2. Returning from Europe, Bittker returned to government service, working for the Office of the

Alien Property Custodian The Office of Alien Property Custodian was an office within the government of the United States during World War I and again during World War II, serving as a custodian to property that belonged to US enemies. The office was created in 1917 by E ...

. Bittker reluctantly returned to his alma mater as an assistant professor in 1946. Eventually he gained tenure in 1951, became a Southmayd Professor in 1958, and Sterling Professor of Law in 1970. He retired in 1983. In 1973, Bittker wrote
The Case for Black Reparations
', inspired by SNCC leader

James Forman James Forman (October 4, 1928 – January 10, 2005) was a prominent African-American leader in the civil rights movement. He was active in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Black Panther Party, and the League of Revolutio ...

, who in 1969 interrupted a church service to demand reparations for slavery. Bittker defended the spirit of Forman's appeal, but argued that a reparations lawsuit for school segregation had a stronger legal basis. Bittker was also a dedicated

environmentalist An environmentalist is a person who is concerned with and/or advocates for the protection of the environment. An environmentalist can be considered a supporter of the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that se ...

, serving as a trustee of the

Natural Resources Defense Council The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is a United States-based 501(c)(3) non-profit international environmental advocacy group, with its headquarters in New York City and offices in Washington D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Bo ...

. Bittker was married to Anne (died on February 2, 1997) and had two children, Susan and Daniel.

Publications (selection)

* * * *

References

* *
Yale Law School obituary
*Anne Bittker Obituary, 2/27/97 ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' B10

External links

Boris I. Bittker papers (MS 1869)
Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library. * 1916 births 2005 deaths Writers from Rochester, New York American legal writers American legal scholars Cornell University alumni Yale Law School alumni Yale Law School faculty Scholars of tax law Yale Sterling Professors United States Army personnel of World War II United States Army soldiers {{US-legal-academic-bio-stub