Posted on 04/04/2005 9:00:23 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) - John McTernan, an activist lawyer who fought landmark civil rights and labor cases and defended witnesses summoned by the House Un-American Activities Committee, has died. He was 94.
McTernan died March 28 in his sleep at his Santa Monica home, his family told the Los Angeles Times.
He argued several times before the U.S. Supreme Court on the constitutionality of government policies during the Cold War such as forcing workers to take loyalty oaths.
One of his most important cases came in 1957. The Supreme Court concluded that defendants have the right to know about evidence the government says it gained from informers and to examine and challenge that evidence.
Based in Los Angeles, he had a 50-year partnership with another famed civil liberties attorney, Ben Margolis. Through the years, McTernan represented labor unions, Communist Party leaders in Pennsylvania and people blacklisted for resisting government inquiries into communism.
"John was a real giant of the profession," said Mark Rosenbaum, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, who worked with McTernan on various civil liberty cases.
McTernan, along with Margolis and two other attorneys, "almost single-handedly held the First Amendment together against the communist witch-hunt attacks," Rosenbaum said.
Born in 1910 in White Plains, N.Y., McTernan earned degrees from Amherst College and Columbia Law School. He was influenced by popular American socialists of the 1920s and 1930s.
In a 2000 interview, McTernan said he belonged to the Communist Party for a few years but later grew disillusioned with its ideology and the Soviet Union's repressive regime.
But "I'm still what I would call a left-winger," he told the Daily Journal.
McTernan retired from active practice in 1992. He served on the board of directors of both the national ACLU and the ACLU of Southern California. He also was on the Arbitration Panel for the Superior Court in Los Angeles County.
McTernan is survived by his wife, four children, a granddaughter and a great-grandson.
Funeral services were pending.
Sounds like good news.
Another communist slime-ball gone.
Good.
Do commies qualify for 72 virgins under the "partners plan"?
No, they think life on earth is all there is. They don't see this as a belief system.
fyi
He was influenced by popular American socialists of the 1920s and 1930s.
"Through the years, McTernan represented labor unions, Communist Party leaders in Pennsylvania and people blacklisted for resisting government inquiries into communism."
I think we truly have a lot to thank Joe McCarthy for.
Yulp. Tailgunner Joe...has been proven correct more and more...the only, good Communist/Marxist/Moaist/Stalinist is a...dead one.....
What a charmer. I just did a quick review. He defended a bunch of communists refusing to cooperate during the HUAC hearings. He also represented Jane Fonda in trying to sue the banks and the government letting the FBI see her bank statements. He lost. :-)
How come all the commies are in Santa Monica?
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