Isaac Shorr

Isaac Shorr (ca. 1884–1964) was a 20th-century American immigration and naturalization lawyer and philosophical anarchist who worked with other important, radical lawyers in the 1920s–1940s and whose legal partners included: Swinburne Hale, Walter Nelles, Joseph R. Brodsky, and Carol Weiss King.[1]

Engraving by Walter Crane of executed "Anarchists of Chicago" after the Haymarket affair (1886), an event that affected Shorr and many in his generation

Background
New York University School of Law's Vanderbilt Hall, where Shorr studied

Isaac Shorr was born about 1882 in Russia (at that time, the Russian Empire). In 1904, his family emigrated to the United States. In 1913, he graduated from New York University School of Law after studying at night and working by day as a cigarmaker. In 1915, he was admitted to the New York bar.[1]

Career
1913 photo of Paterson silk strike leaders Patrick Quinlan, Carlo Tresca, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Adolph Lessig, and Bill Haywood–Tresca was well known to Shorr and his law partners

During World War I, Shorr was a partner of Hale, Nelles, and Shorr, which "defended radicals." In 1920, Hale wrote to Tom Mooney, "We are in a hot bed of repression here, with only a very few lawyers who are willing and able to handle the situation, and who are hopelessly overworked."[2] His partners were Swinburne Hale and Walter Nelles. Carlo Tresca, a prominent Italian anarchist, was well acquainted with them.[3] Shorr and Nelles served as counsel to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The firm support legal investigations published in the 67-page Report upon the Illegal Practices of the United States Department of Justice by the National Popular Government League (NGPL); Swinburne Hale did a majority of the work on the report.[4]

In 1920, Shorr testified before Congress that he was representing more than 60 people involved in deportation during the Palmer Raids.[5][6] In fact, during the Palmer Raids, the U.S. Government noted:

Mr. Shorr is well known to the department because of his activities as attorney for these people. He many times has appeared as attorney for salients who have never seen him until the hearing and disclaimed any knowledge of his retainer. Mr. Shorr is one of the most active leaders of these people in the United States, and at the present time his office is the address at which persons in this country receive incendiary correspondence from persons deported on the Buford.[7]

Joseph R. Brodsky and Carol Weiss King worked with this firm, as did Vito Marcantonio (whose mentor was Brodsky).[8][9][10][11][12]

In 1924, Shorr and Nelles appealed United States ex rel. Tisi v. Tod (1924) and United States ex rel. Mensevich v. Tod before the U.S. Supreme Court.[13][14]

By 1924, Shorr was a member of "Shorr, Brodsky, and King"[10][15] (also called "Brodsky, King & Shorr,"[16] called a "loose" partnership).[11][17] The other two partners were:

Brodsky helped found the ILD with King's help; King founded the International Juridical Association (IJA) with Brodsky's help.

Clarence Darrow circa 1925, whom Shorr helped defend two Italian anti-fascists in 1927

In 1927, Shorr associated with Clarence Darrow and Arthur Garfield Hays to help defend the anti‐Fascists Calogero Greco and Donato Carillo for the alleged murder of the Fascist Joseph Carisi (Giuseppe Carisi) in the Bronx.[1] On December 9, 1927, the trial began, and the full defense team included Darrow, Hays, Shorr, and King.[3] They won an acquittal.

In 1934, the American Committee for Protection of Foreign Born (ACPFB) retained Shorr and King defended Domenico Sallitti (also known as Domenic Sallitti, an "alien anarchist") in the Ferrero-Sallitti Case in San Francisco. Sallitti's friend Valerio Isca organized their defense, created a Ferrero-Sallittii Defense Conference, and enlisted Rose Pesotta of the ILGWU to help raise bail. Supporters likened their case to that of Sacco and Vanzetti.[18]

Personal and death

Shorr married Bessie Goldenburg; they had two daughters.[1]

He was a "ponderous, philosophical anarchist."[18]

Shorr died aged 82 on April 23, 1964.[1]

Shorr's grandson Gene Weingarten is a Washington Post journalist who has won two Pulitzer Prizes for feature writing.

See also

References
  1. "Isaac Shorr Is Dead". New York Times. 26 April 1964. Retrieved 27 September 2017.
  2. Polenberg, Richard (1999). Fighting Faiths: The Abrams Case, the Supreme Court, and Free Speech. Cornell University Press. p. 75. ISBN 0801486181. Retrieved 27 September 2017.
  3. Pernicone, Nunzio (25 April 2011). Carlo Tresca: Portrait of a Rebel. Read How You Want. p. 227 (firm), 397 (Darrow). ISBN 9781459618909. Retrieved 27 September 2017.
  4. Smith, Donald L. (1986). Zechariah Chafee, Jr., Defender of Liberty and Law. Harvard University Press. p. 48. ISBN 9780674966857. Retrieved 28 September 2017.
  5. Hearings of the United States Congress, House. Committee on Immigration and Naturalization. US GPO. 1920. p. 34. Retrieved 28 September 2017.
  6. Hearings of the United States Congress, House. Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, Proposed Changes in Naturalization Laws. US GPO. 1920. p. 34. Retrieved 28 September 2017.
  7. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer on Charges Made Against Department of Justice by Louis F. Post and Others: Hearings Before the Committee on Rules, House of Representatives, Sixty-sixth Congress, Second Session, Part 1. US GPO. 1920. pp. 79–80. Retrieved 28 September 2017.
  8. Ginger, Ann Fagan (1993). Carol Weiss King, human rights lawyer, 1895-1952. Boulder: University Press of Colorado. ISBN 0-87081-285-8. LCCN 92040157.
  9. Thompson, Craig (17 February 1951). "The Communists's Dearest Friend". Saturday Evening Post. pp. 30, 90–93.
  10. "King, Carol Weiss (1895–1952)". Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia. 18 May 2010. Retrieved 27 September 2017.
  11. "Carol Weiss King". Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
  12. Murtagh, Matthew (18 May 2010). "Politician, Social Worker, and Lawyer. Vito Marcantonio and Constituent Legal Services". VitoMarcantonio.com. Retrieved 27 September 2017.
  13. "United States ex rel. Tisi v. Tod". Wikisource. Retrieved 28 September 2017.
  14. "United States ex rel. Mensevich v. Tod". Wikisource. Retrieved 28 September 2017.
  15. "UNITED STATES ex rel. GILETTI v. COMMISSIONER OF IMMIGRATION, ELLIS ISLAND, NEW YORK HARBOR". Court Listener. 4 November 1929. Retrieved 28 September 2017.
  16. Hearings of the United States Congress House Committee on Un-American Activities. US GPO. 1950. p. 2979 (Lowenthal), 2988 (death), 2992. Retrieved 27 September 2017.
  17. "UNITED STATES ex rel. BRAZIER et al. v. COMMISSIONER OF IMMIGRATION AT PORT OF NEW YORK". Court Listener. 15 December 1924. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
  18. Jung, Moon-Ho, ed. (1 July 2014). The Rising Tide of Color: Race, State Violence, and Radical Movements across the Pacific. University of Washington Press. pp. 141–143. ISBN 9781459618909. Retrieved 27 September 2017.
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