Elmer Gertz (September 14, 1906 – April 27, 2000) was an American lawyer, writer, law professor, and

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...

activist. During his lengthy legal career he won some high-profile cases, most notably

parole Parole (also known as provisional release or supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or ...

for notorious killer

Nathan Leopold Nathan Freudenthal Leopold Jr. (November 19, 1904 – August 29, 1971) and Richard Albert Loeb (; June 11, 1905 – January 28, 1936), usually referred to collectively as Leopold and Loeb, were two wealthy students at the University of Chicago ...

and the

obscenity An obscenity is any utterance or act that strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time. It is derived from the Latin ''obscēnus'', ''obscaenus'', "boding ill; disgusting; indecent", of uncertain etymology. Such loaded language can be use ...

trial of

Henry Miller Henry Valentine Miller (December 26, 1891 – June 7, 1980) was an American novelist. He broke with existing literary forms and developed a new type of semi-autobiographical novel that blended character study, social criticism, philosophical ref ...

's novel ''

Tropic of Cancer The Tropic of Cancer, which is also referred to as the Northern Tropic, is the most northerly circle of latitude on Earth at which the Sun can be directly overhead. This occurs on the June solstice, when the Northern Hemisphere is tilted toward ...

'', a book published in France but banned in the United States because of its "candid sexuality" in describing the author's life in Paris. In addition to accounts of his cases and career, he also reviewed books and edited a collection of works by

Frank Harris Frank Harris (14 February 1855 – 26 August 1931) was an Irish-American editor, novelist, short story writer, journalist and publisher, who was friendly with many well-known figures of his day. Born in Ireland, he emigrated to the United State ...

, whom he represented as

literary agent A literary agent is an agent who represents writers and their written works to publishers, theatrical producers, film producers, and film studios, and assists in sale and deal negotiation. Literary agents most often represent novelists, screenwrit ...

for a while. He is best remembered in the legal world, however, for a case in which he was not an advocate but a plaintiff: ''

Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc. ''Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc.'', 418 U.S. 323 (1974), was a landmark decision of the US Supreme Court establishing the standard of First Amendment protection against defamation claims brought by private individuals. The Court held that, so long ...

'', a

libel Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

action he brought against the

John Birch Society The John Birch Society (JBS) is an American right-wing political advocacy group. Founded in 1958, it is anti-communist, supports social conservatism, and is associated with ultraconservative, radical right, far-right, or libertarian ideas. T ...

in 1969 after it accused him of being part of a Communist conspiracy to discredit local police departments. He prevailed, but only after a 14-year battle that saw the case go before the

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

, which ruled that as a private figure Gertz did not have to prove

actual malice Actual malice in United States law is a legal requirement imposed upon public officials or public figures when they file suit for libel (defamatory printed communications). Compared to other individuals who are less well known to the general pub ...

on the defendants' part. When the case finally went to trial, the jury found in favor of Elmer Gertz and awarded him compensatory damages of $100,000 and punitive damages of $300,000. The award was upheld on appeal.

Early life

A Jew of Lithuanian descent, Gertz was born to Morris and Grace Gertz in Chicago's

Maxwell Street Maxwell Street is an east-west street in Chicago, Illinois that intersects with Halsted Street just south of Roosevelt Road. It runs at 1330 South in the numbering system running from 500 West to 1126 West.Hayner, Don and Tom McNamee (1988). '' ...

neighborhood. He attended elementary school with future Supreme Court Justice

Arthur Goldberg Arthur Joseph Goldberg (August 8, 1908January 19, 1990) was an American statesman and jurist who served as the 9th U.S. Secretary of Labor, an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and the 6th United States Ambassador to ...

. At the age of ten, his mother dead and his father unable to care for his children, he spent the remainder of his childhood in

orphanage An orphanage is a Residential education, residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the Childcare, care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared for by their biological families. The parent ...

s in Chicago and

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

Education

He graduated from Crane Technical High School, where he made the acquaintance of other young men who would become famous in their own right: authors

Meyer Levin Meyer Levin (October 7, 1905 – July 9, 1981) was an American novelist. Perhaps best known for his work on the Leopold and Loeb case, Levin worked as a journalist (for the ''Chicago Daily News'' and, from 1933–1939, as an editor for ''Esquire ...

and

Leo Rosten Leo Calvin Rosten (Yiddish: ; April 11, 1908 – February 19, 1997) was an American humorist in the fields of scriptwriting, storywriting, journalism, and Yiddish lexicography. Early life Rosten was born into a Yiddish-speaking family in Łódź ...

and newspaper magnate Leo Lerner. Afterwards, he attended the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

and its law school. He received his J.D. degree in 1930 and went to work in the firm of the well-connected

Jacob Arvey Jacob M. Arvey (November 3, 1895 – August 25, 1977) was an influential Chicago political leader from the Depression era until the mid-1950s. He may be best known for his efforts to end corruption in the Chicago Democratic organization, and ...

. He would remain there for another 14 years. He remained involved in education throughout his life, teaching a civil rights class at The John Marshall Law School until his death in 2000.

Legal career

As a law student, Gertz had been inspired by

Clarence Darrow Clarence Seward Darrow (; April 18, 1857 – March 13, 1938) was an American lawyer who became famous in the early 20th century for his involvement in the Leopold and Loeb murder trial and the Scopes "Monkey" Trial. He was a leading member of t ...

's famous argument against the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

in the Leopold-Loeb trial. He himself achieved national fame when he won parole for Nathan Leopold, the surviving half of the infamous thrill-killing duo, in 1958. He made a point of walking out of the prison gates with his client. He and Miller became good friends after he persuaded a court to lift the ban on ''Tropic of Cancer'', a decision the Supreme Court upheld in 1964's '' Grove Press, Inc., v. Gerstein''. In the mid-1960s, Gertz emulated his legal inspiration, Clarence Darrow, when he argued against the

death sentence Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that ...

handed down to

Jack Ruby Jack Leon Ruby (born Jacob Leon Rubenstein; April 25, 1911January 3, 1967) was an American nightclub owner and alleged associate of the Chicago Outfit who murdered Lee Harvey Oswald on November 24, 1963, two days after Oswald was accused of th ...

for killing

Lee Harvey Oswald Lee Harvey Oswald (October 18, 1939 – November 24, 1963) was a U.S. Marine veteran who assassinated John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, on November 22, 1963. Oswald was placed in juvenile detention at the age of 12 fo ...

. It was overturned, and Ruby, who was terminally ill, served the remaining few years of his life in prison.

Educator

In addition to his law practice, Elmer Gertz was an adjunct professor teaching Civil Rights Law at The John Marshall Law School in Chicago, where he taught classes in civil rights.

Libel suit against John Birch Society

In 1969, Elmer Gertz represented the family of a young man killed by a Chicago police officer. This drew the ire of the

, which alleged in an article about the case in its magazine, ''American Opinion'', that he had a criminal record and was part of a Communist conspiracy to discredit local police departments in order to pave the way for Communist control by a national police force. He sued the Society for

defamation Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

and won a $500,000 judgment. On appeal, the case went all the way to the Supreme Court, which was asked to settle the question of whether or not Gertz was a public figure, who would thus have to prove

to win (which he probably could not have). In 1974, the Court ruled in a 5–4 decision that he was not a public figure and that states were free to set their own standards for

when they were alleged by a private figure. Ironically, given his successes in fighting

censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments ...

, some of the dissenting justices and other commentators have viewed his victory as limiting

First Amendment First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

rights. The case went back to a six-day trial where Gertz once again prevailed and was awarded $100,000 in compensatory damages and $300,000 in punitive damages. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed the award and the U.S. Supreme Court declined further review. A few years later, Gertz and his wife went on a round-the-world, luxury cruise with the money he won and sent "wish you were here" postcards back to Welch and his organization every chance they got.

Political and social activism

In the 1940s, he was active in the fair housing movement, serving on several public bodies devoted to the subject. He presciently warned against the creation of large

housing project Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authorities, government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the d ...

s, advocating a more scattered approach instead. He also campaigned for the admission of

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

s to the local bar association. In 1969, he was elected to the Illinois Constitutional Convention, where he chaired the committee on its Bill of Rights, working closely with the committee's legal counsel,

Dallin H. Oaks Dallin Harris Oaks (born August 12, 1932) is an American religious leader and former jurist and academic who since 2018 has been the first counselor in the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). He was ...

. It has been called the strongest bill of rights of any state constitution at that point in time. A decade later, he chaired the equivalent committees of the Illinois and Chicago bar associations. He also served as chairman of the Lawyers' Association. After his death, the Illinois State Bar Association created the Elmer Gertz Lawyer Award in 2000 to recognize lawyers for their exceptional dedication to protecting civil liberties. Elmer Gertz received Israel's

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

's Medal in 1972 for his service on that country's behalf, and considered that his finest accomplishment. "Things do change for the better," he assured some students near the end of his life, "very, very slowly."

Elmer Gertz Lawyer Award

The Illinois State Bar Association established the Elmer Gertz Lawyer Award in 2000 to recognize lawyers who have shown a continued commitment to preserve and advance human rights. For many years the award was jointly presented with the Blind Service Association, where Elmer Gertz was a board member. The award has been given to the following persons or entities: *2001 - Gregory A. Adamski *2002 - Prof. Ralph Ruebner, The John Marshall Law School (Chicago) *2003 - Prof. Victor J. Stone, University of Illinois College of Law *2004 - Fay Clayton, Chicago *2005 - Award not given *2006 - Prof. Michael P. Seng, The John Marshall Law School (Chicago) *2007 - R. Eugene Pincham, Retired Justice, Illinois Appellate Court *2008 - Prof. Doug Cassel, Notre Dame University School of Law *2009 - Award not given *2010 - Award not given *2011 - Award not given *2012 - Judge Martha A. Mills, Cook County Circuit Court *2013 - Jody Raphael, Schiller DuCanto & Fleck Family Law Center, DePaul University College of Law (Chicago) *2014 - Barbara Blaine

Bibliography

*''The Best is Yet To Be'' *''Carl Sandburg: Is He the Poet of The People?'' 1946 *''Charter for a New Age: Inside the Sixth Illinois Constitutional Convention'', 1980 *''The Diary of a Public Man'', 1945 *''For the First Hours of Tomorrow: The New Illinois Bill of Rights'', 1972 *''Gertz v. Robert Welch: The Story of the Landmark Libel Case'', 1992 *''Frank Harris and Henry Miller: Two Lives Intertwined With Mine'' *''A Handful of Clients'' *''Moment of Madness: The People vs. Jack Ruby'', 1968 *''Reflections on Henry Miller's Centennial Celebration'' *''Odyssey of a Barbarian: The Biography of George Sylvester Viereck'', 1979 *''Quest for a Constitution: A Man Who Wouldn't Quit'', 1984 *''To Life: The Story of A Chicago Lawyer'', 1990 See also Ronald K.L. Collins & Sam Chaltain, ''We Must not be Afraid to be Free: Stories of Free Expression in America'' (Oxford U. Press, 2011)

References

*Adiya, Sarbani; February 2001
Elmer Gertz: A Chicago Legal Legend
''Illinois History''. *Tilt, Max; date unknown

''Legal Tilt'' 1.03.

External links

Elmer Gertz papers, Library of Congress, Manuscript DivisionVisual materials from the Elmer Gertz papers, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
from ''American Legends''.

Letter by Gertz urging preservation of Maxwell Street.

A further fragment of the ''American Legends'' interview. {{DEFAULTSORT:Gertz, Elmer 1906 births 2000 deaths American legal writers American people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent Illinois lawyers Writers from Chicago Jewish American writers Lawyers from Chicago Literary agents American civil rights lawyers University of Chicago alumni 20th-century American lawyers 20th-century American writers 20th-century American Jews