Morris Leopold Ernst (August 23, 1888 – May 21, 1976) was an American lawyer and prominent attorney for 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 ...
(ACLU). In public life, he defended and asserted the rights of Americans to privacy and freedom from censorship, playing a significant role in challenging and overcoming the banning of certain works of literature (including
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...
's ''
Ulysses'' and
Radclyffe Hall's ''
The Well of Loneliness'') and in asserting the right of media employees to organize
labor unions
A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...
. He also promoted an anti-
communist stance within the ACLU itself, and was a member of the
President's Committee on Civil Rights.
Background
Morris Leopold Ernst was born in
Uniontown, Alabama, on August 23, 1888, into a Jewish family.
[Langer]
“These 16 Jewish Heroes Rescued Books From The Jaws Of The Censors”
The Forward, Sep 22, 2019 His father, Carl Ernst, had been born in
Plzeň
Plzeň (), also known in English and German as Pilsen (), is a city in the Czech Republic. It is the Statutory city (Czech Republic), fourth most populous city in the Czech Republic with about 188,000 inhabitants. It is located about west of P ...
,
Bohemia
Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...
(in what is now the
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...
), and had worked as a peddler and shopkeeper; while his mother, Sarah Bernheim, was the daughter of German immigrants and had graduated from
Hunter College
Hunter College is a public university in New York City, United States. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools ...
.
[Whitman, Alden]
“Morris Ernst, ‘Ulysses’”
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
, May 23, 1976, p. 40.["Morris Leopold Ernst: An Inventory of His Papers at the Harry Ransom Center"](_blank)
/ref> The family moved to New York when Morris was two, and lived in several locations in Manhattan where Carl ran a general store.[ Morris attended the Horace Mann School and graduated from ]Williams College
Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim ...
in Williamstown, Massachusetts, in 1909. He studied law at night at New York Law School
New York Law School (NYLS) is a private, American law school in the Tribeca neighborhood in Manhattan, New York City. The third oldest law school in New York City, its history predates its official founding in 1891 by Theodore William Dwight, T ...
where he graduated in 1912 and was admitted to the New York bar in 1913.
Career
Ernst practiced law in New York City and in 1915 co-founded the law firm of Greenbaum, Wolff & Ernst. He joined the board of 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 ...
(ACLU) in 1927 and was one of the most prominent and successful ACLU attorneys from the 1920s through the 1960s. From 1929 to 1954, he shared the title of general counsel at the ACLU with Arthur Garfield Hays. He became vice chairman of the ACLU's board in 1955.[
During the 1930s, Ernst played a significant role in challenging and relaxing existing censorship around the topics of sexual education and birth control, exonerating the sexual education manuals of Marie Stopes and Mary Ware Dennett,] as well as legally representing Margaret Sanger
Margaret Sanger ( Higgins; September 14, 1879September 6, 1966) was an American birth control activist, sex educator, writer, and nurse. She opened the first birth control clinic in the United States, founded Planned Parenthood, and was instr ...
and Hannah Stone and defending ''Life'' magazine over a photographic essay related to the film ''The Birth of a Baby''. Ernst displayed considerable skill at harnessing the media to publicise and foreground his cases and initiatives, as well as his ability to educate a courtroom audience (and, frequently, its legal staff) on the topics in question.[ Also during this period, Ernst enjoyed the first of a succession of parallel civic appointments when he was appointed in 1932 (by then ]Governor of New York
The governor of New York is the head of government of the U.S. state of New York. The governor is the head of the executive branch of New York's state government and the commander-in-chief of the state's military forces. The governor ...
Franklin Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...
) to the State Banking Board, where he participated in the drafting of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933.[
In 1933, on behalf of ]Random House
Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...
, he successfully defended James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...
's novel '' Ulysses'' against obscenity
An obscenity is any utterance or act that strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time. It is derived from the Latin , , "boding ill; disgusting; indecent", of uncertain etymology. Generally, the term can be used to indicate strong moral ...
charges in the case of '' United States v. One Book Called Ulysses'', leading to the book's publication in the U.S. He won similar cases on behalf of Radclyffe Hall's '' The Well of Loneliness'' and Arthur Schnitzler's ''Casanova's Homecoming''.[
In 1937, as attorney for the American Newspaper Guild, he argued successfully in the Supreme Court that it should uphold the constitutionality of the ]National Labor Relations Act
The National Labor Relations Act of 1935, also known as the Wagner Act, is a foundational statute of United States labor law that guarantees the right of private sector employees to organize into trade unions, engage in collective bargaining, an ...
(the Wagner Act) as applied to the press. The case established the right of media employees to organize labor unions.[
By the early 1940s, Ernst was leaving the pursuit of individual cases behind in favor of committee work, legal education and liaison with state representatives.][ He had also developed, since the late 1930s, a distrust of ]communism
Communism () is a political sociology, sociopolitical, political philosophy, philosophical, and economic ideology, economic ideology within the history of socialism, socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a ...
[ and was a strong supporter of J. Edgar Hoover and the ]FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...
, even going so far as to pass on confidential letters and ACLU documents to Hoover.[ In 1940, as head of the ACLU, he agreed to bar ]communists
Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, d ...
from employment there and even discouraged their membership, basing his position on a distinction between the rights of the individual and the rights of groups. During the 1950s, he would actively defend the FBI from criticism of its investigative methods and growing civic power.[
Ernst counted Justice Louis Brandeis as a close friend and later had close personal relationships with Presidents ]Franklin Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...
and Harry Truman
Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. As the 34th vice president in 1945, he assumed the presidency upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt that year. Subsequen ...
and New York Governor Herbert Lehman.[ Besides politicians, he also was friendly with many cultural figures, including ]Edna Ferber
Edna Ferber (August 15, 1885 – April 16, 1968) was an American novelist, short story writer and playwright. Her novels include the Pulitzer Prize-winning '' So Big'' (1924), '' Show Boat'' (1926; made into the celebrated 1927 musical), '' Cima ...
, E. B. White, Groucho Marx, Michael Foot, Compton Mackenzie, Al Capp, Charles Addams, Grandma Moses, Heywood Broun, and Margaret Bourke-White.
In 1946, Truman appointed Ernst to the President's Committee on Civil Rights.[
In 1956, Jesús Galíndez, a critic of the regime of Rafael Trujillo in the ]Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...
, disappeared, abducted from New York City, it was charged, by Trujillo's agents. Hired by Trujillo to investigate the affair, Ernst's resulting report cleared the Trujillo regime of involvement in Galindez's disappearance, but the FBI and the press remained unconvinced.
Personal life
In 1912, he married Susan Leerburger, with whom he had a son (who died in infancy) and a daughter. Susan died in 1922. Ernst married Margaret Samuels in 1923, and together they had a son and a daughter. Margaret died in 1964. Ernst kept a summer home on Nantucket, Massachusetts, and enjoyed sailing small boats. He died at home in New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
on May 21, 1976. He was survived by his son, both daughters, and five grandchildren.[
Morris Ernst's papers are housed at the Harry Ransom Center at the ]University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...
.
Published works
Authored
*Ernst, Morris L., ''If I Were a (Constitutional) Dictator '' (January 13, 1932)["If I Were a (Constitutional) Dictator", '']The Nation
''The Nation'' is a progressive American monthly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper ...
'', January 13, 1932, pp. 36-39
*''Hold your tongue!: Adventures in Libel and Slander '' (1932)
*''America's Primer'' (1931)
*''The Ultimate Power'' (1937)
*''Too Big'' (1940)
*Foreword to ''Ulysses'' (1942)
*''The Best is Yet: Reflections of an Irrepressible Man'' (1945)
*''The First Freedom'' (1946)
*''So Far, So Good'' (1948)
*''Report on the American Communist'' (1952)
*''Touch Wood: A Year's Diary'' (1960)
*''Untitled: The Diary of my 72nd Year'' (1962)
*''The Pandect of C.L.D. (1965)
*''The teacher,'' (editor, 1967)
*''The Comparative International Almanac'' (1967)
*''A Love Affair with the Law'' (1968)
*''Utopia 1976'' (1969)
*''The Great Reversals: Tales of the Supreme Court'' (1973)
Co-author or contributor
*with William Seagle, ''To the Pure: A Study of Obscenity And the Censor'' (1928)
*with Pare Lorentz, ''Censored: The Private Life of the Movies'' (1930)
*with Alexander Lindey ''Hold Your Tongue!: Adventures in Libel and Slander'' (1932)
*contributor to ''Sex in the Arts'' (1932)
*contributor to ''The Sex Life of the Unmarried Adult'' (1934)
*with Alexander Lindey ''The Censor Marches On: Recent Milestones in the Administration of the Obscenity Law in the United States'' (1940)
*with David Loth ''American Sexual Behavior and the Kinsey Report'' (1948)
*with David Loth ''The People Know Best: The Ballot vs. the Poll'' (Washington: Public Affairs Press, 1949)
*Introduction to ''This Deception, The Story of a Woman Agent'', by Hede Massing (1951)
*with David Loth, ''For Better Or Worse: New Approach to Marriage & Divorce'' (1952)
*with Alexander Lindy, ''Hold Your Tongue! The Layman's Guide to Libel and Slander'' (1950)
*with David Loth, ''Report on the American Communist'' (1952, 1962)
*with Alan Schwartz ''Privacy: The Right to be Let Alone'' (1962)
*with Alan Schwartz ''Censorship: The Search for the Obscene'' (1964)
*with David Loth ''How High Is Up?: Modern Law for Modern Man'' (1964)
*with Alan Schwarz ''Lawyers and What They Do'' (1965)
*with Eleanora B. Black ''Triple Cross Tricks'' (1968)
*with Malcolm A. Hoffmann ''Back and Forth: An Occasional, Casual Communication'' (1969)
*with David Loth ''The Taming of Technology'' (1972)
*contributor to ''Newsbreak'' (1974)
References
External links
"Papers of Lawyer and Civil Liberties Advocate Morris L. Ernst Now Cataloged", Harry Ransom Center
Guide to the Morris L. Ernst Banned Books Collection
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ernst, Morris
1888 births
1976 deaths
American anti-communists
Activists from Alabama
American Civil Liberties Union people
People from Uniontown, Alabama
Williams College alumni
Jews from Alabama
American people of Czech-Jewish descent
New York Law School alumni
20th-century American Jews
American lawyers