Carol Weiss King: Human Rights Lawyer, 1895-1952 (review)

Many contemporary practitioners of human rights law might not be familiar with the achievements of Carol Weiss King. Nevertheless, these achievements made Ms. King a devoted pioneer in the human rights legal arena: her commitment to immigration law and justice for resident aliens and newly arrived immigrants; her dedication to the rights of workers and socialists, including communist party members; her opposition to fascism and racism domestically and abroad; her numerous publications that chronicled successful legal strategies for litigation; her participation in alternative lawyers’ organizations, such as the National Lawyer’s Guild and the International Juridical Association; and her subtle battles to achieve equality for women in the legal profession.

Ann Fagan Ginger begins her biography of Carol Weiss King not at her birth, or even her childhood and education, but instead with Carol Weiss King’s graduation from law school and the early days of her legal career. From this point the book looks backwards occasionally at Ms. King’s childhood and early family life. Most of the biography, however, is dedicated to the chronological progression of Ms. King’s legal career and the ways in which this career impacted and was affected by her personal life and relationships.

Carol Weiss King grew up in a liberal, intellectual Jewish family that spent winters in New York and summers in Maine. Her father and both of her brothers were also lawyers. However, they chose to work as prominent corporate lawyers, while she opted for a career primarily in immigration law. This family background provided Ms. King with two invaluable assets: the financial resources to support herself while representing clients that frequently lacked the means to pay legal fees, ¹ and powerful connections with prominent New York lawyers.

Carol entered Barnard College in 1912 and graduated from New York University Law School in 1920, with a brief intermission in her education to work for the American Association for Labor Legislation before she entered law school. During this intermission Carol met and married Gordon King, a Harvard graduate and a struggling writer.

After graduating from law school, Ms. King sought employment with Hale, Nelles & Shorr, a law firm noted for its progressive views, including its representation of victims of the notorious Palmer Raids. ² Because the firm could barely cover its own expenses, they could not afford to hire Carol. However, they offered her the opportunity to rent an office in the same suite, and to learn from and assist them. Thus began Ms. King’s career as a solo legal practitioner. Later, Ms. King actually would form a partnership to create the law firm of Shorr, Brodsky & King; however, she returned to solo practice after the firm dissolved.

Most of Ms. King’s early cases involved immigrants threatened with deportation. She combined administrative hearing tactics with letter writing campaigns and lobbying in her attempts to win freedom for her clients. Many of her early cases failed, however, because the immigration laws denied aliens many of the basic due process rights guaranteed citizens. Many of Ms. King’s efforts focused on reforming these laws so that immigrants would be guaranteed certain fundamental rights.

Ms. King began working behind the scenes on many prominent cases, including cases that came before the United States Supreme Court: Gitlow, Herndon, Scottsboro, Schneiderman, and others. She preferred researching the complex legal issues and writing the persuasive legal briefs to working in the limelight as a courtroom advocate. However, she eventually developed her skills as a successful courtroom advocate, in cases such as Bridges and Browder.

Throughout her legal career, Ms. King worked ardently to publish case synopses that other advocates could use in briefs and litigation. She helped to write and edit such prestigious publications as the ACLU’s Law and Freedom Bulletin and the IJA Bulletin, publications which proclaimed their dedication to the causes of human and civil rights. These publications proved to be invaluable resources for progressive advocates, providing litigation strategies and authoritative sources to cite in...