Philip Heymann
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Philip Benjamin Heymann (October 30, 1932 – November 30, 2021) was an American legal scholar and federal prosecutor who headed the Criminal Division of the Justice Department as Assistant Attorney General during the
Carter administration Jimmy Carter's tenure as the List of presidents of the United States, 39th president of the United States began with Inauguration of Jimmy Carter, his inauguration on January 20, 1977, and ended on January 20, 1981. Carter, a Democratic Party ...
and was briefly Deputy Attorney General in the
Clinton administration Bill Clinton's tenure as the 42nd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1993, and ended on January 20, 2001. Clinton, a Democrat from Arkansas, took office following his victory over Republican in ...
before he resigned over management and policy differences as well as perceived interference by the White House. He was involved internationally in supporting the rule of law in criminal justice systems. In domestic politics he was a vocal supporter of civil and political liberties and, as such, was actively critical of the
George W. Bush administration George W. Bush's tenure as the 43rd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2001, and ended on January 20, 2009. Bush, a Republican from Texas, took office following his narrow electoral college vict ...
, particularly its warrantless domestic spying program. Even before the
September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...
, Heymann studied and published on how prosecution of antiterror policies can be done consistent with the rule of law in a democratic society. He was later James Bar Ames Professor of Law, Emeritus at Harvard Law School, where he began teaching in 1969.


Early life and education

Heymann was born in the
Squirrel Hill Squirrel Hill is a residential neighborhood in the East End of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The city officially divides it into two neighborhoods, Squirrel Hill North and Squirrel Hill South, but it is almost universally treated ...
section of Pittsburgh on October 30, 1932, as one of two children of Sidney B. and Bessie (Kann) Heymann. His father owned an insurance agency. He was a 1950 graduate of Pittsburgh's Shady Side Academy. Heymann's sister, Sidney (known as Sally) became a licensed psychologist in
Washington, Pennsylvania Washington, also known as Little Washington to distinguish it from the District of Columbia, is a city in Washington County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. The population was 13,176 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 censu ...
. She died in 1991. In 1954 he received his B.A. degree ''
summa cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...
'' from
Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...
, where he was a member of
Scroll and Key The Scroll and Key Society is a Collegiate secret societies in North America, secret society, founded in 1842 at Yale University, in New Haven, Connecticut. It is one of the oldest Collegiate secret societies in North America#Yale University, Ya ...
Society. He was awarded a Fulbright grant, and he studied at the Sorbonne in Paris for the 1954–1955 academic year. He then served two years in the Air Force's Office of Special Investigations, reviewing security clearances. He later received his J.D. degree from Harvard Law School, where he was third in his class and one of two case editors of the ''
Harvard Law Review The ''Harvard Law Review'' is a law review published by an independent student group at Harvard Law School. According to the ''Journal Citation Reports'', the ''Harvard Law Review''s 2015 impact factor of 4.979 placed the journal first out of ...
''. Thereafter, he clerked for Justice John M. Harlan during the 1960-1961 term.


Career


Early government career


Solicitor General's Office

From 1961 to 1965 Heymann practiced in the office of the
Solicitor General of the United States The solicitor general of the United States (USSG or SG), is the fourth-highest-ranking official within the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), and represents the federal government in cases before the Supreme Court of the United States. ...
under
Archibald Cox Archibald Cox Jr. (May 17, 1912 – May 29, 2004) was an American legal scholar who served as United States Solicitor General, U.S. Solicitor General under President John F. Kennedy and as a special prosecutor during the Watergate scandal. During ...
. After his admission to the Supreme Court bar in 1963, Heymann argued six cases before the Supreme Court. Only one of these, however, received any publicity, and that was owing to the unusual levity of the court on that occasion. Heymann left the Solicitor General's office shortly after President
Johnson Johnson may refer to: People and fictional characters *Johnson (surname), a common surname in English * Johnson (given name), a list of people * List of people with surname Johnson, including fictional characters *Johnson (composer) (1953–2011) ...
accepted Cox's ''pro forma'' resignation at the end of the court's term in 1965.


State Department

In September 1965 he became deputy in the Bureau of Security and Consular Affairs of the
State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs o ...
and was appointed acting administrator in March 1966. Right before his appointment he issued a reprimand to the head of the Passport Office for asking the U.S. embassies in Paris and Moscow to report on the activities of Harvard history professor and anti-nuclear activist H. Stuart Hughes. The written reprimand cited the significant freedom that Americans ought to enjoy in freedom of movement. After issuing the reprimand, the Bureau learned that 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 ...
had asked for the instructions and that such surveillance requests had routinely been made without the knowledge of the directors of the Bureau for at least two decades. The affair became something of a political issue, an early pushback against government surveillance. After serving as acting administrator of the Bureau for nearly a year, Heymann was appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary in the State Department's Bureau of Internal Organizations. In 1967 he became Executive Assistant to Under Secretary of State
Nicholas Katzenbach Nicholas deBelleville Katzenbach (January 17, 1922 – May 8, 2012) was an American lawyer who served as United States Attorney General during the Lyndon B. Johnson administration. He had previously served as United States Deputy Attorney Genera ...
. In 1968 Heymann helped Katzenbach force a reluctant State Department bureaucracy to finally undertake a review of the denial of security clearance of John Paton Davies, one of the
China Hands The term ''China Hand'' originally referred to 19th-century merchants in the treaty ports of China, but came to be used for anyone with expert knowledge of the language, culture, and people of China. In 1940s America, the term ''China Hands'' came ...
whose security clearance was revoked 14 years before by then Secretary of State
John Foster Dulles John Foster Dulles (February 25, 1888 – May 24, 1959) was an American politician, lawyer, and diplomat who served as United States secretary of state under President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 until his resignation in 1959. A member of the ...
, who made the decision under pressure of
Joseph McCarthy Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician who served as a Republican Party (United States), Republican United States Senate, U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death at age ...
's allegations. The conduct of Davies was vindicated in the later review and his security clearance re-instated.


Harvard, Cox and Watergate

Heymann left the State Department for Harvard Law School where he taught as visiting professor from July 1969. He was one of the very few faculty hires by the law school who had a substantial amount of non-academic experience between graduation and appointment. Heymann also became a faculty member at
Harvard Kennedy School The John F. Kennedy School of Government, commonly referred to as Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), is the school of public policy of Harvard University, a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Harvard Kennedy School offers master's de ...
. Heymann believed that law students were better served by being taught how to build institutions rather than merely instructed in legal ideas. At the beginning of his academic career Heymann worked to introduce law students to some of the methods taught in the Kennedy School for creating and managing institutions. In 1979 he proposed and the Law School tentatively approved a proposal for a 13-hour elective in such fields as analytical methods, economic theory, statistical methods and political theory. At Harvard he was now a colleague of Archibald Cox, his boss in the Solicitor General's office. Their political impulses were roughly the same. Heymann joined Cox and most of the Law School faculty, for instance, in an open letter to Congress, urging an end to the Vietnam war at the height of student unrest following the
Kent State shootings The Kent State shootings (also known as the Kent State massacre or May 4 massacre"These would be the first of many probes into what soon became known as the Kent State Massacre. Like the Boston Massacre almost exactly two hundred years before (Ma ...
. Cox, unlike Heymann, however, refused to involve himself in the politics of the Supreme Court. Heymann collaborated with Cox in drafting the ''amicus curiae'' brief to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on behalf of the American Mutual Assurance Alliance and the American Insurance Association, in support of the constitutionality of Massachusetts's
No-fault insurance In its broadest sense, no-fault insurance is any type of insurance contract under which the insured party is indemnified by their own insurance company for losses, regardless of the source of the cause of loss. In this sense, it is similar to f ...
scheme, a piece of legislation with a decided Harvard connection. In May 1973 when Cox was confirmed as the Special Counsel to investigate and prosecute crimes connected with the
Watergate scandal The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the Presidency of Richard Nixon, administration of President Richard Nixon. The scandal began in 1972 and ultimately led to Resignation of Richard Nixon, Nix ...
. Cox chose two fellow faculty members to help him set up the office. One was James Vorenberg, who had been the executive director of President Johnson's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice from 1965 to 1967 and had founded and chaired the Center for the Advancement of Criminal Justice at Harvard Law School. He was therefore versed in how to create, staff and run a large legal institution dealing with complex problems. The other was Heymann. Journalist James Doyle who saw the daily workings of the special counsel's office as communications adviser to Cox and
Leon Jaworski Leonidas "Leon" Jaworski (September 19, 1905 – December 9, 1982) was an American attorney and law professor who served as the second special prosecutor during the Watergate scandal. He was appointed to that position on November 1, 1973, soon aft ...
concluded that because Cox's own son broke the family tradition by not entering the legal profession and because Heymann worked for Cox at the Solicitor General's Office and trained under him at Harvard Law School, Heymann, his Harvard colleague, "was as close to Archibald Cox as a son". The first task of the three lawyers was to prevent the resignation of the three assistant United States Attorneys who had prosecuted the Watergate burglars, who had threatened to quit in a pique because Cox had not consulted with them before appearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee to explain how he planned to proceed. Cox met with them for two and a half hours, and while he gave them a tepid letter of support. he privately determined that he needed to hire a criminal trial lawyer to replace them. Cox hired
James F. Neal James Foster Neal (September 7, 1928 – October 21, 2010) was an American trial lawyer who was best known for prosecuting organized labor, labor leader Jimmy Hoffa and later top Nixon administration officials in connection with the Watergate scand ...
, who he knew from his days as Solicitor General, when Neal won a conviction of James Hoffa for jury tampering. It was Neal and Heymann who debriefed the three prosecutors. The next major challenge was to ensure that whoever was indicted would receive a fair trial and prevent premature disclosure of evidence that might compromise the criminal cases. In that regard the Senate Watergate Committee proved a challenge because they were about to televise a hearing with Nixon counsel
John Dean John Wesley Dean III (born October 14, 1938) is a disbarred American attorney who served as White House Counsel for U.S. President Richard Nixon from July 1970 until April 1973. Dean is known for his role in the cover-up of the Watergate scan ...
. Cox met with the Committee's counsel, Sam Dash, who refused to postpone or otherwise modify any of the committee's plans. Cox was afraid that the nationwide publicity might jeopardize the case and that the committee's use of immunity to compel Dean's testimony might altogether bar charges against Dean. Cox decided to obtain a court order either postponing or otherwise modifying the terms of the hearing and preventing the Committee from obtaining immunity for Dean. After the staff lawyers researched the issue, they concluded that there was no basis for such a motion. Heymann was also against it for policy reasons. He thought that Cox should not be perceived as "the one hokept the country from getting the story". Since Cox had publicly committed to such a motion, however, he decided to have Heymann argue the motion in court to prevent damage to his own relations with the court. In a court room packed with reporters Heymann gingerly made the argument, mainly to show that the Special Counsel was concerned with the due process rights of the defendants and not to prevent the public from hearing the evidence. (Cox had expressly cautioned him not to "overargue" the motion.) At one point Heymann said, "I want to be careful not to overargue my case ..." Judge
John Sirica John Joseph Sirica (March 19, 1904 – August 14, 1992) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, where he became famous for his role in the trials stemming from the Watergate scandal. ...
tersely replied: "No chance of that, young man." The court denied the Special Counsel's motion in all respects. Heymann spent the rest of the summer working as Associate Special Counsel, returning to Cambridge to teach in the fall. When President
Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until Resignation of Richard Nixon, his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican ...
fired Cox that October in the so-called
Saturday Night Massacre The "Saturday Night Massacre" was a series of resignations over the dismissal of special prosecutor Archibald Cox that took place in the United States Department of Justice during the Watergate scandal in 1973. The events followed the refusal b ...
Heymann flew to Washington to lend Cox moral support during Cox's press conference at the National Press Club. He was deeply pessimistic that Nixon would allow the prosecutors to continue. He would nevertheless return for the summers of 1974 and 1975 to work in the office of Cox's successor, Leon Jaworksi.


Later career

Heymann compiled the
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report on the
sexual harassment Sexual harassment is a type of harassment based on the sex or gender of a victim. It can involve offensive sexist or sexual behavior, verbal or physical actions, up to bribery, coercion, and assault. Harassment may be explicit or implicit, wit ...
of female sportswriter
Lisa Olson Lisa Olson is an American sports journalist. Her work has been featured in the anthology, "The Best American Sports Writing". She was previously a sports columnist for the ''New York Daily News'', and the first female sports columnist for the ''S ...
. He was Assistant Attorney General (Criminal Division) from 1978 to 1981 and Deputy Attorney General from 1993 to 1994. Heymann was co-chairman of the Constitution Project's bipartisan Sentencing Committee. He was elected to the
Common Cause Common Cause is a watchdog group based in Washington, D.C., with chapters in 35 states. It was founded in 1970 by John W. Gardner, a Republican, who was the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare in the administration of President Lyndon ...
National Governing Board in 1978 and 1998.


Personal life

In 1954, Heymann married the former Ann Ross of the Oakland section of Pittsburgh, and they had two children. His son, Stephen Heymann, is a former Assistant United States Attorney. His daughter Jody, with whom he wrote an article in 1996 while she was assistant professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School and the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, subsequently became Dean of the Field School of Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles.Raub, Amy, Adele Cassola, Isabel Latz and Jody Heymann, "Protections of Equal Rights across Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity: An Analysis of 193 National Constitutions", 28 ''Yale Journal of Law and Feminism'' 149-70 at 149 (2016). Heymann died from complications of a stroke at his home in Los Angeles on November 30, 2021, at the age of 89.


Selected publications


Books

* Heymann, Philip B. and William H. Kenety (comp.), ''The Murder Trial of Wilbur Jackson: A Homicide in the Family'' (St. Paul, Minn.: West Publishing Co., 1975). * Heymann, Philip B., ''The Politics of Public Management'' (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, c1987). * Mathews, M.L., Philip B. Heymann and A.S. Mathews (eds.), ''Policing the Conflict in South Africa'' (Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida, 1993). * Heymann, Philip B., ''Terrorism and America: A Commonsense Strategy for a Democratic Society'' (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1998). * Heymann, Philip B. and William N. Brownsberger, ''Drug Addiction and Drug Policy: The Struggle to Control Dependence'' (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2001). * Heymann, Philip B., ''Terrorism, Freedom, and Security: Winning Without War'' (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2003). * Heymann, Philip B. and Juliette N. Kayyem, ''Long-Term Legal Strategy Project for Preserving Security and Democratic Freedoms in the War on Terrorism'' ( ambridge, Massachusetts:National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism,
004 004, 0O4, O04, OO4 may refer to: * 004, fictional British 00 Agent * 0O4, Corning Municipal Airport (California) * O04, the Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation * Abdul Haq Wasiq, Guantanamo detainee 004 * Junkers Jumo 004 turbojet engine * La ...
. * Heymann, Philip B. and Juliette N. Kayyem, ''Protecting Liberty in an Age of Terror'' (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2005). * Heymann, Philip B., ''Living the Policy Process'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008). * Blum, Gabriella and Philip B. Heymann, ''Laws, Outlaws, and Terrorists: Lessons from the War on Terrorism'' (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2010).


Articles

* Heymann, Philip B., "Understanding Criminal Investigations", 22 ''Harvard Journal on Legislation'' 315-34 (Summer 1985). * Heymann, Philip B. and Sara Holtz, "The Severely Defective Newborn: The Dilemma and the Decision Process", 23 ''Public Policy'' 381-417 (Fall 1975). * Heymann, Philip B., "A Law Enforcement Model for Legal Services", 23 ''Clearinghouse Review'' 254-57 (July 1989). * Heymann, Philip B., "International Cooperation in Dealing With Terrorism: A Review of Law and Recent Practice", 6 ''American University Journal of International Law and Policy'' 1-34 (Fall 1990). * Heymann, Philip B., "Two Models of National Attitudes toward International Cooperation in Law Enforcement", 31 ''Harvard International Law Journal'' 99-107 (Winter 1990). * Heymann, Philip B., "Considering the Costs and Benefits of Lawyering in Drafting Legislation or Establishing Precedents, 36 ''Villanova Law Review'' 191-216 (February 1991). * Getmann, Philip B., "Should Latin American Prosecutors Be Independent of the Executive in Prosecuting Government Abuses?" 26 ''University of Miami Inter-American Law Review'' 535-59 (April 1995). * Heymann, Philip B and Mark H. Moore, "The Federal Role in Dealing with Violent Street Crime: Principles, Questions, and Cautions", 543 ''Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science'' 103-15 (January 1996). * Heymann, Philip and Jody Heymann, "The Fate of Public Debate in the United States", 33 ''Harvard Journal on Legislation'' 511-26 (Spring 1996). * Heymann, Philip B., "Democracy and Corruption", 20 ''Fordham International Law Journal'' 323-46 (December 1996). * Heymann, Philip B., "The New Policing", 28 ''Fordham Urban Law Journal'' 407-56 (December 2000). * Heymann, Philip B., "Cautionary Note on the Expanding Role of the U.S. Attorneys' Office", 28 ''Capital University Law Review'' 745-52 (2000). * Heymann, Philip B., "Civil Liberties and Human Rights in the Aftermath of September 11", 29 ''Human Rights'' 17-25 (Winter 2002). * Heymann, Philip, "The On/Off Switch", 16 ''William and Mary Bill of Rights Journal'' 55-62 (October 2007). * Blum, Gabriella and Philip B. Heymann, "Law and Policy of Targeted Killing", 1 ''Harvard National Security Journal'' 145-70 (June 27, 2010).


See also

* List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States (Seat 9)


Notes


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Heymann, Philip B. 1932 births 2021 deaths 20th-century American lawyers 21st-century American lawyers California Democrats Clinton administration personnel Harvard Law School alumni Harvard Law School faculty Law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States Lawyers from Pittsburgh United States assistant attorneys general for the Criminal Division United States deputy attorneys general Yale College alumni