Stefanie Powers
American actress
William Moses Kunstlerwas an American attorney and civil rights activist, known for defending the Chicago Seven. Kunstler was an active member of the National Lawyers Guild, a board member of the American Civil Liberties Unionand the co-founder of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), the “leading gathering place for radical lawyers in the country.”
Kunstler’s defense of the Chicago Seven from 1969 to 1970 led The New York Times to label him “the country’s most controversial and, perhaps, its best-known lawyer”.
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About the William Kunstler
William Moses Kunstlerwas an American attorney and civil rights activist, known for defending the Chicago Seven. Kunstler was an active member of the National Lawyers Guild, a board member of the American Civil Liberties Unionand the co-founder of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), the “leading gathering place for radical lawyers in the country.”
Kunstler’s defense of the Chicago Seven from 1969 to 1970 led The New York Times to label him “the country’s most controversial and, perhaps, its best-known lawyer”. Kunstler is also well known for defending members of the Revolutionary Communist Party, Catonsville Nine, Black Panther Party, Weather Underground Organization, the Attica Prison rioters, Meir Kahane assassin El Sayyid Nosair, and the American Indian Movement. He also won a de facto segregation case regarding the District of Columbia’s public schools and “disinterred, singlehandedly” the concept of federal criminal removal jurisdiction in the 1960s. Kunstler refused to defend right-wing groups, such as the Minutemen, on the grounds that “I only defend those whose goals I share. I’m not a lawyer for hire. I only defend those I love.”
He was a polarizing figure; many on the right wished to see him disbarred, while many on the left admired him as a “symbol of a certain kind of radical lawyer.” Even some other civil rights lawyers regarded Kunstler as a “publicity hound and a hit-and-run lawyer” who “brings cases on Page 1 and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund wins them on Page 68.” Legal writer Sidney Zion quipped that Kunstler was “one of the few lawyers in town who knows how to talk to the press. His stories always check out and he’s not afraid to talk to you, and he’s got credibility–although you’ve got to ask sometimes, ‘Bill, is it really true?'”
13 Quotes by William Kunstler
- 1.
Our bodies must always be wherever that struggle and the moment we forget that, the moment we become lazy, the moment we sit back, then then the evil ones do their ordained tasks to us.
William KunstlerAmerican lawyer and civil rights activist (1919-1995)
- 2.
When we talk about justice in America we’re really talking about justice brought about by the people, not by judges who are tools of the establishment or prosecutors who are are equally tools of the establishment or the wardens or the police officers.
William KunstlerAmerican lawyer and civil rights activist (1919-1995)
- 3.
Four years earlier I had been selected, with Kay Boyle, the writer, and a number of others, to go to Cambodia and come back and prove that there were no sanctuaries in that country.
William KunstlerAmerican lawyer and civil rights activist (1919-1995)
- 4.
So May 4th in the labor movement has always been an important date.
William KunstlerAmerican lawyer and civil rights activist (1919-1995)
- 5.
May 4th is a particularly memorable day in American history because 84 years to the day before May 4, 1970, there was another demonstration at the Haymarket Square in Chicago.
William KunstlerAmerican lawyer and civil rights activist (1919-1995)
- 6.
But he said Blanket Hill should be a national monument. And so we came out of his chambers feeling, though while we had lost to the powers of darkness, we had at least shown one Federal Judge what the right path would have been.
William KunstlerAmerican lawyer and civil rights activist (1919-1995)
- 7.
On the unofficial level it was a glorious moment in our national life because young people decided that this had to stop, that they could no longer stand the shedding of blood in this tragic adventure in Southeast Asia.
William KunstlerAmerican lawyer and civil rights activist (1919-1995)
- 8.
This is New York, and there’s no law against being annoying.
William KunstlerAmerican lawyer and civil rights activist (1919-1995)
- 9.
We have become the charnel house of the Western World.
William KunstlerAmerican lawyer and civil rights activist (1919-1995)
- 10.
Once the troops move into Cambodia, the colleges and universities of this country were on the verge of civil war. Many closed down. The students were up in arms. And it looked very much like there were going to be real problems in this country.
William KunstlerAmerican lawyer and civil rights activist (1919-1995)
- 11.
A dog is like a liberal. He wants to please everybody. A cat really doesn’t need to know that everybody loves him.
William KunstlerAmerican lawyer and civil rights activist (1919-1995)
- 12.
At first blush, it seems that the young people who were shot down in the parking lot at the base of Blanket Hill gave up their lives for a dream that died with them.
William KunstlerAmerican lawyer and civil rights activist (1919-1995)
- 13.
But on the other hand government takes away a certain amount of liberty and in some countries it takes away all of liberty. And it will, everywhere, if people who fight government do not fight government any longer.
William KunstlerAmerican lawyer and civil rights activist (1919-1995)