Max Raskin (November 8, 1902August 22, 1984) was a Latvian American

immigrant 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, ...

, lawyer, and judge. Raskin served as

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at th ...

City Attorney from 1932 to 1936 and later served as a Wisconsin Circuit Court Judge in

Milwaukee County Milwaukee County is located in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. At the 2020 census, the population was 939,489, down from 947,735 in 2010. It is both the most populous and most densely populated county in Wisconsin, and the 45th most populous cou ...

from 1963 to 1973.

Life and career

Raskin was born to

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

parents in the Russian Empire and emigrated with his family at the age of nine. He graduated from the

Marquette University Law School Marquette University Law School is the professional graduate law school of Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is one of two law schools in Wisconsin and the only private law school in the state. Founded in 1892 as the Milwaukee Law ...

in 1926 and practiced in

as a

labor law Labour laws (also known as labor laws or employment laws) are those that mediate the relationship between workers, employing entities, trade unions, and the government. Collective labour law relates to the tripartite relationship between employee, ...

attorney. Raskin ran unsuccessfully for

Milwaukee County District Attorney The Milwaukee County District Attorney is a state constitutional officer responsible for criminal prosecution in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin. The current district attorney is John T. Chisholm, who has served since 2007. History The first Milwau ...

in 1930. In 1932, he was elected Milwaukee City Attorney as a

Socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

, unseating nonpartisan incumbent John M. Niven. After his election, Raskin appointed former judge and Socialist politician

William F. Quick William F. Quick, Sr., (July 31, 1885December 12, 1966) was an American machinist, lawyer, and Socialist Party of America, Socialist politician in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was the Socialist Party nominee for Governor of Wisconsin in 1924 and serv ...

as his first assistant and employed

Edwin Knappe Edwin William Knappe (January 14, 1884 – February 5, 1971) was an American machinist from Milwaukee who became a lawyer, and who served one term as a Socialist member of the Wisconsin State Assembly. Background Knappe was born in Milwaukee ...

, a former Socialist state Representative, as an assistant city attorney. As city attorney, Raskin collaborated closely with Mayor

Daniel W. Hoan Daniel Webster Hoan (March 12, 1881 – June 11, 1961) was an American politician who served as the 32nd Mayor of Milwaukee, Wisconsin from 1916 to 1940. A lawyer who had served as Milwaukee City Attorney from 1910 to 1916, Hoan was a pro ...

, also a Socialist, and required assistant city attorneys to relinquish any employment in private practice. He was harshly criticized by the conservative ''

Milwaukee Sentinel The ''Milwaukee Journal Sentinel'' is a daily morning broadsheet printed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where it is the primary newspaper. It is also the largest newspaper in the state of Wisconsin, where it is widely distributed. It is currentl ...

'' for "his refusal to prosecute communistic rioters". Raskin was defeated in his 1936 reelection bid and reentered private practice. In 1937, he was elected as a national committeeman of the

Socialist Party of America The Socialist Party of America (SPA) was a socialist political party in the United States formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party of Ameri ...

but, in 1940, he left the party and joined the Wisconsin Progressive Party. In 1944, he became a Democrat. Raskin ran for judicial office in 1949 and 1956 but was twice defeated; in 1963, his political ally Governor John W. Reynolds, Jr., appointed him to the

Circuit Court. Raskin served on the court until 1973 and, following his mandatory retirement at the age of 70, continued to serve the state as a reserve judge. In that capacity, he stepped in as Acting Circuit Court Judge in Waukesha County for Judge William E. Gramling during a lengthy struggle with cancer. He died in 1984 at the age of 81. Raskin's nephew, Marcus Raskin, was a progressive activist and social critic.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Raskin, Max 1904 births 1984 deaths Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States American people of Latvian-Jewish descent Jewish socialists Politicians from Milwaukee Marquette University Law School alumni Wisconsin city attorneys Wisconsin state court judges Jewish American attorneys Wisconsin Democrats Wisconsin Progressives (1924) 20th-century American politicians Socialist Party of America politicians from Wisconsin Lawyers from Milwaukee 20th-century American judges 20th-century American lawyers