Melville Bernard Nimmer (June 6, 1923 – November 23, 1985) was an American

lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...

and law professor, renowned as an expert in

freedom of speech Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recogni ...

and

United States copyright law The copyright law of the United States grants monopoly protection for "original works of authorship". With the stated purpose to promote art and culture, copyright law assigns a set of exclusive rights to authors: to make and sell copies of thei ...

. Nimmer graduated from

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of Californi ...

, and

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

. He was admitted to the

California State Bar The State Bar of California is California's official attorney licensing agency. It is responsible for managing the admission of lawyers to the practice of law, investigating complaints of professional misconduct, prescribing appropriate disciplin ...

in January 1951. He was professor at the

UCLA School of Law The UCLA School of Law is one of 12 professional schools at the University of California, Los Angeles. UCLA Law has been consistently ranked by '' U.S. News & World Report'' as one of the top 20 law schools in the United States since the inception ...

from 1962. One year later, he published the two-volume treatise that would become the leading secondary source on copyright law, ''

Nimmer on Copyright ''Nimmer on Copyright'' is a multi-volume legal treatise on United States copyright law that is widely cited in American courts, and has been influential for decades as the leading secondary source on American copyright law. The work was originall ...

''. In 1984, he published a one-volume treatise on freedom of speech, titled appropriately ''Nimmer on Freedom of Speech: Treatise on Theory of First Amendment''. As a lawyer, he was best known as the winning attorney in the 1971 case ''

Cohen v. California ''Cohen v. California'', 403 U.S. 15 (1971), was a landmark decision of the US Supreme Court holding that the First Amendment prevented the conviction of Paul Robert Cohen for the crime of disturbing the peace by wearing a jacket displaying "Fu ...

''.''Cohen v. California'', 403 U.S. 15 (1971). In ''Cohen'', the

Supreme Court of the United States 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 a 5–4 vote in an opinion written by Justice Harlan, held that a state cannot

criminalize Criminalization or criminalisation, in criminology, is "the process by which behaviors and individuals are transformed into crime and criminals". Previously legal acts may be transformed into crimes by legislation or judicial decision. However, ...

speech absent a "particularized and compelling reason." The Court struck down the conviction of a 19-year-old man who had walked into the

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

courthouse with a jacket reading "

Fuck ''Fuck'' is an English-language expletive. It often refers to the act of sexual intercourse, but is also commonly used as an intensifier or to convey disdain. While its origin is obscure, it is usually considered to be first attested to aro ...

the

Draft Draft, The Draft, or Draught may refer to: Watercraft dimensions * Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel * Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail * Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a vesse ...

." ''Cohen'' became one of the leading cases interpreting the

First Amendment to the United States Constitution The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution prevents the government from making laws that regulate an establishment of religion, or that prohibit the free exercise of religion, or abridge the freedom of speech, the ...

protection of freedom of speech. Melville Nimmer is the father of

David Nimmer David Nimmer is an American lawyer, law professor, renowned as an expert in United States copyright law. He received an A.B. with distinction and honors in 1977 from Stanford University and his J.D. in 1980 from Yale Law School, where he served as ...

, himself a legal academic, who has made some revisions to the original version of ''Nimmer on Copyright''.

References

External links

First Amendment Library entry for ''Cohen v. California''Full text of Supreme Court decision on FindlawAbstract on Cohen v. California, from OYEZ
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nimmer, Melville 1923 births 1985 deaths University of California, Los Angeles alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni Harvard Law School alumni UCLA School of Law faculty Copyright scholars American legal scholars