Louis Benjamin Heller (February 10, 1905 – October 30, 1993) was an American lawyer and politician who served three terms as a U.S. congressman from New York from 1949 to 1954.

Life

He was born on February 10, 1905, on the Lower East Side in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. Heller was the second of four children of Max and Dora Heller. His parents had emigrated from

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

just a few years before the birth of their first child, a daughter named Freida. Louis B. Heller graduated from

Fordham Law School Fordham University School of Law is the law school of Fordham University. The school is located in Manhattan in New York City, and is one of eight ABA-approved law schools in that city. In 2013, 91% of the law school's first-time test tak ...

in 1926. He served as a special deputy assistant attorney general for cases of election fraud from 1936 until 1946. He was an appeal agent with the United States Selective Service from 1941 until 1942.

State legislature

He was a member of the New York State Senate (7th D.) in 1943 and 1944.

Congress

He was elected as a

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...

to the

81st United States Congress The 81st United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from January 3, 19 ...

, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of John J. Delaney, and was re-elected to the 82nd and

83rd United States Congress The 83rd United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States in Washington, D.C. from January 3, 1953, until January 3, 1955, during the last two weeks of the Truman administration, wi ...

es, holding office from February 15, 1949, until his resignation on July 21, 1954.

Judicial post

Heller resigned from Congress to become a Judge of New York City's Special Sessions Court, where he served until 1958. In December 1958 he was elected Justice of New York City's City Court, and he served until August 1966. He was elected to the New York Supreme Court in 1966 and served until his 1977 retirement.

Death

He died on October 30, 1993, in

Plantation, Florida Plantation is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the population was 91,750. It is a principal city of the Miami metropolitan area. The city's name comes from the previous part-owner of the land, the E ...

. He was buried at

Washington Cemetery Washington Cemetery may refer to: *Washington Cemetery (Brooklyn) *Washington Cemetery (Washington Court House, Ohio) {{Disambiguation ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

References

Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Heller, Louis B. Fordham University School of Law alumni 1905 births 1993 deaths American people of Romanian-Jewish descent Jewish members of the United States House of Representatives People from Plantation, Florida Democratic Party New York (state) state senators New York Supreme Court Justices Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from New York (state) Burials in New York (state) 20th-century American politicians 20th-century American judges 20th-century American Jews