Osmond Fraenkel
Osmond Fraenkel (Oct. 17, 1888-May 17, 1983) was a United States attorney who served as general counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union.
Professional life
Fraenkel was born in New York City on Oct. 17, 1888. He attended the Horace Mann School and Harvard College, then graduated from Columbia Law School in 1911. He then entered private practice.[1]
Fraenkel first came to notoriety as the attorney for the Scottsboro boys.[1] Fraenkel was the attorney for Harry Bridges and Bertrand Russell in their legal cases.[1] In De Jonge v. Oregon he defended a client accused of criminal syndicalism after this person had spoken at a meeting of the communist party.[1] He defended Consumers Union's pamphlet on contraception from Frank Comerford Walker's opinion that it was obscene.[2] Other cases argued include United States v. Richardson (1974), Kramer v. Union Free School District No. 15 (1969), Turner v. New York (1967), Trop v. Dulles (1958), Bridges v. California (1941), Schneider v. State of New Jersey (1939), and De Jonge v. Oregon (1937).[3]
He opposed the McCarthyism of Joseph McCarthy.[1] He did legal work for the cases around the Pentagon Papers, Japanese American internment, and school prayer in the United States.[1]
He authored more than 100 books an articles, including a book on the Sacco and Vanzetti case.[1]
He was co-counsel to the New York Civil Liberties Committee from 1935-1955, at which time he became general counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union.[1] At the time of his death he worked with the lawfirm of Rabinowitz, Boudin, Standard, Krinsky & Lieberman.[1]
Norman Dorsen and Ira Glasser called Fraenkel "one of the giants in contemporary life."[1]
