Leonard Boudin

Leonard B. Boudin (July 20, 1912- November 24, 1989) was a prominent civil liberties attorney and left-wing activist who represented Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers fame, and Dr. Benjamin Spock, the author of "Baby and Child Care", who advocated draft resistance during the Vietnam War. Other opponents of the Vietnam war whom he represented were Julian Bond, William Sloan Coffin, and Philip Berrigan [cite web | title= Reminiscences of Leonard Boudin | url=http://www.inthefirstperson.com/firp/firp.detail.documents.aspx?documentcode=OHI0016726-12169] .

He also represented other controversial clients including the Church of Scientology, Judith Coplon, the post-revolutionary government of Cuba, Paul Robeson and others (such as persons subpoenaed by the House Un-American Activities Committee) thought or known to have Marxist views or Communist affiliations. Boudin was counsel to the National Emergency Civil Liberties Committee and a member of the National Lawyers Guild. He was the law partner of Victor Rabinowitz, himself counsel to numerous left-wing organizations and individuals.

Boudin argued and won unanimously the first case in which the United States Supreme Court invalidated a federal statute under the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment, "Lamont v. Postmaster General" [cite web | title=Jewish Champions of First Amendment | url=http://lists.ucla.edu/pipermail/conlawprof/2006-September/027395.html] .

Leonard Boudin was the nephew of Louis Boudin, a labor lawyer and professor of constitutional law at Yale University. Leonard fathered two children, Michael and Kathy, who achieved recognition in later life. Michael Boudin became a jurist and is currently the Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. Kathy Boudin was an activist and co-founder of the 1960s radical group the Weather Underground, who served 22 years in prison for her role in a 1981 robbery that left two police officers and a security guard dead.

References

Further reading

*Braudy, Susan, "Family Circle: The Boudins and the Aristocracy of the Left", Random House, November 2003

*Rabinowitz, Victor, "Unrepentant Leftist: A Lawyer's Memoir", Beacon Press, 1980, ISBN 978-0252022531