Burton Allen Joseph (May 30, 1930 – March 31, 2010) was an American civil rights attorney.William Grimes, "Burton Joseph, Lawyer in First Amendment Cases, Is Dead at 79", ''The New York Times'', April 2, 2010
available online.
/ref> He represented clients in

free 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 recognise ...

cases, and represented the

American Library Association The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world. History 19th century ...

in its suit that ultimately found the

Communications Decency Act The Communications Decency Act of 1996 (CDA) was the United States Congress's first notable attempt to regulate pornographic material on the Internet. In the 1997 landmark case '' Reno v. ACLU'', the United States Supreme Court unanimously stru ...

unconstitutional. He pushed the

American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is an American nonprofit civil rights organization founded in 1920. ACLU affiliates are active in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The budget of the ACLU in 2024 was $383 million. T ...

of Illinois to represent the National Socialist Party of America, an offshoot of the American Nazi Party, in its desire to march in

Skokie, Illinois Skokie (; formerly Niles Center) is a Village (United States), village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. According to the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, its population was 67,824. Skokie lies approximately north of Chicago's dow ...

. That case resulted in '' National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie'', 432 U.S. 43 (1977), a Supreme Court opinion that determined the Party had the right to march. Joseph was a partner at Joseph, Lichtenstein & Levinson, a Chicago law firm, and also defended demonstrators arrested at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968. Born in Chicago, his parents ran a business caretaking Jewish cemeteries. Joseph obtained his

undergraduate degree An undergraduate degree (also called first degree or simply degree) is a colloquial term for an academic degree earned by a person who has completed undergraduate courses. In the United States, it is usually offered at an institution of higher ed ...

from the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

, graduated from DePaul law in 1952 and started his practice in Chicago soon thereafter. Among his many clients was the

Comic Book Legal Defense Fund The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF) is an American non-profit organization formed in 1986 to protect the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, First Amendment rights of comics creators, publishers, and retailers covering legal ...

. In addition to his legal work, he was the executive director of the Playboy Foundation, the charitable arm of

Playboy ''Playboy'' (stylized in all caps) is an American men's Lifestyle journalism, lifestyle and entertainment magazine, available both online and in print. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, funded in part by a $ ...

Enterprises, for nine years. He was an adjunct professor at the Chicago–Kent College of Law for ten years."Burton Joseph"
Joseph, Lichtenstein & Levinson (law firm), accessed 4 April 2010

References

1930 births 2010 deaths Lawyers from Chicago American civil rights lawyers American people of Jewish descent DePaul University College of Law alumni University of Illinois alumni 20th-century American lawyers {{US-law-bio-stub