Isaac Shorr (ca. 1884–1964) was a 20th-century American

immigration Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...

and

naturalization Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the in ...

lawyer and philosophical

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...

who worked with other important, radical lawyers in the 1920s–1940s and whose legal partners included:

Swinburne Hale Swinburne Hale (1884–1937) was an American lawyer, poet, and socialist, best remembered as one of the leading civil rights attorneys of the decade of the 1920s. Hale was a Harvard College classmate of Roger Nash Baldwin and law partner of ...

Walter Nelles Walter Nelles (1883–1937) was an American lawyer and law professor. Nelles is best remembered as the co-founder and first chief legal counsel of the National Civil Liberties Bureau and its successor, the American Civil Liberties Union. In this ...

, Joseph R. Brodsky, and

Carol Weiss King Carol Weiss King (24 August 1895 – 22 January 1952) was a well-known immigration lawyer, key founder of the International Juridical Association, and a founding member of the National Lawyers Guild in the United States. Her left-leanin ...

Background

Isaac Shorr was born about 1882 in Russia (at that time, the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

). In 1904, his family emigrated to the United States. In 1913, he graduated from

New York University School of Law New York University School of Law (NYU Law) is the law school of New York University, a private research university in New York City. Established in 1835, it is the oldest law school in New York City and the oldest surviving law school in New ...

after studying at night and working by day as a cigarmaker. In 1915, he was admitted to the New York bar.

Career

During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, Shorr was a partner of Hale, Nelles, and Shorr, which "defended radicals." In 1920, Hale wrote to

Tom Mooney Thomas Joseph Mooney (December 8, 1882 – March 6, 1942) was an American political activist and labor leader, who was convicted with Warren K. Billings of the San Francisco Preparedness Day Bombing of 1916. It quickly became apparent that Mo ...

, "We are in a hot bed of repression here, with only a very few lawyers who are willing and able to handle the situation, and who are hopelessly overworked." His partners were

and

Carlo Tresca Carlo Tresca (March 9, 1879 – January 11, 1943) was an Italian-American newspaper editor, orator, and labor organizer who was a leader of the Industrial Workers of the World during the 1910s. He is remembered as a leading public opponent of fas ...

, a prominent Italian anarchist, was well acquainted with them. Shorr and Nelles served as counsel to the

American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...

(ACLU). The firm support legal investigations published in the 67-page ''Report upon the Illegal Practices of the United States Department of Justice'' by the National Popular Government League (NGPL); Swinburne Hale did a majority of the work on the report. In 1920, Shorr testified before Congress that he was representing more than 60 people involved in deportation during the

Palmer Raids The Palmer Raids were a series of raids conducted in November 1919 and January 1920 by the United States Department of Justice under the administration of President Woodrow Wilson to capture and arrest suspected socialists, especially anarchists ...

. In fact, during the Palmer Raids, the U.S. Government noted:

Mr. Shorr is well known to the department because of his activities as attorney for these people. He many times has appeared as attorney for salients who have never seen him until the hearing and disclaimed any knowledge of his retainer. Mr. Shorr is one of the most active leaders of these people in the United States, and at the present time his office is the address at which persons in this country receive incendiary correspondence from persons deported on the ''Buford''.

Joseph R. Brodsky and Carol Weiss King worked with this firm, as did

Vito Marcantonio Vito is an Italian name that is derived from the Latin word "''vita''", meaning "life". It is a modern form of the Latin name Vitus, meaning "life-giver," as in San Vito or Saint Vitus, the patron saint of dogs and a heroic figure in southern I ...

(whose mentor was Brodsky). In 1924, Shorr and Nelles appealed ''United States ex rel. Tisi v. Tod'' (1924) and ''United States ex rel. Mensevich v. Tod'' before the

U.S. Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

. By 1924, Shorr was a member of "Shorr, Brodsky, and King" (also called "Brodsky, King & Shorr," called a "loose" partnership). The other two partners were: * Joseph R. Brodsky, chief counsel of the

International Labor Defense The International Labor Defense (ILD) (1925–1947) was a legal advocacy organization established in 1925 in the United States as the American section of the Comintern's International Red Aid network. The ILD defended Sacco and Vanzetti, was activ ...

(ILD), legal arm of the

Communist Party of the USA The Communist Party USA, officially the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), is a communist party in the United States which was established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Revo ...

(then the

Workers Party of America The Workers Party of America (WPA) was the name of the legal party organization used by the Communist Party USA from the last days of 1921 until the middle of 1929. Background As a legal political party, the Workers Party accepted affiliation fr ...

, best known for his work on the legal defense team of the Scottsboro Boys *

, the youngest, who was just starting her career as immigration and civil rights lawyer, best known for her defense of alleged Communists

Harry Bridges Harry Bridges (28 July 1901 – 30 March 1990) was an Australian-born American union leader, first with the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA). In 1937, he led several chapters in forming a new union, the International Longshore and W ...

Gerhart Eisler Gerhart Eisler (20 February 1897 – 21 March 1968) was a German politician, editor and publicist. Along with his sister Ruth Fischer, he was a very early member of the Austrian German Communist Party (KPDÖ) and then a prominent member of the ...

, and

J. Peters J. Peters (born Sándor Goldberger; 11 August 1894 – 1990) was the most commonly known pseudonym of a man who last went by the name "Alexander Stevens" in 1949. Peters was a journalist, political activist, and accused Soviet spy who was a leadin ...

Brodsky helped found the ILD with King's help; King founded the

International Juridical Association The International Juridical Association (IJA; 1931–1942) was an association of socially minded American lawyers, established by Carol Weiss King and considered by the U.S. federal government (in the form of the U.S. House Un-American Activities ...

(IJA) with Brodsky's help. Clarence S Darrow

In 1927, Shorr associated with

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 ...

and

Arthur Garfield Hays Arthur Garfield Hays (December 12, 1881 – December 14, 1954) was an American lawyer and champion of civil liberties issues, best known as a co-founder and general counsel of the American Civil Liberties Union and for participating in notable ca ...

to help defend the anti‐Fascists Calogero Greco and Donato Carillo for the alleged murder of the Fascist Joseph Carisi ( Giuseppe Carisi) in the Bronx. On December 9, 1927, the trial began, and the full defense team included Darrow, Hays, Shorr, and King. They won an acquittal. In 1934, the American Committee for Protection of Foreign Born (ACPFB) retained Shorr and King defended Domenico Sallitti (also known as Domenic Sallitti, an "alien anarchist") in the

Ferrero Ferrero (Italian: , Spanish: ) is a surname of Italian (from Piedmont) and Spanish origin that means 'smith', the person who works with iron, in parallel with surnames like Ferraro, Ferrari and Smith. Notable people with the surname Ferrero inclu ...

-Sallitti Case in San Francisco. Sallitti's friend Valerio Isca organized their defense, created a Ferrero-Sallittii Defense Conference, and enlisted Rose Pesotta of the

ILGWU The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU), whose members were employed in the women's clothing industry, was once one of the largest labor unions in the United States, one of the first U.S. unions to have a primarily female membe ...

to help raise bail. Supporters likened their case to that of

Sacco and Vanzetti Nicola Sacco (; April 22, 1891 – August 23, 1927) and Bartolomeo Vanzetti (; June 11, 1888 – August 23, 1927) were Italian immigrant anarchists who were controversially accused of murdering Alessandro Berardelli and Frederick Parmenter, a ...

Personal and death

Shorr married Bessie Goldenburg; they had two daughters. He was a "ponderous, philosophical anarchist." Shorr died aged 82 on April 23, 1964. Shorr's grandson

Gene Weingarten Gene Norman Weingarten (born October 2, 1951) is an American journalist, and former syndicated humor columnist for ''The Washington Post.'' He is the only two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing. Weingarten is known for both ...

is a

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

journalist who has won two Pulitzer Prizes for feature writing.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shorr, Isaac 1880s births 1964 deaths American trade union leaders

Background

Career

Personal and death

See also

References