90 Facts About Albert Levitt

Albert Levitt was an American judge, law professor, Unitarian minister, attorney and government official.

Albert Levitt unsuccessfully ran many times for public office in Connecticut, California and New Hampshire, generally receiving only a small percentage of the vote.

Albert Levitt then went to seminary and spent several years as a student, eventually gaining degrees from three Ivy League universities.

Albert Levitt then began a series of short-term positions teaching law.

Albert Levitt publicly broke with the Roosevelt administration in 1937, and lost his government job.

Albert Levitt formed the belief that the Roman Catholic Church was a great danger to American democracy and, in his campaigns, warned against its influence.

Albert Levitt served in the Hospital Corps, and, from 1906 to 1907, in the Philippines.

Albert Levitt served as a lecturer at Columbia after his graduation, crossing the Atlantic to join the American Ambulance Corps in the French Army in 1915.

Albert Levitt returned to the United States after several months, and spent a year, from 1915 to 1916, teaching philosophy at Colgate University.

Albert Levitt had spent a brief period at Harvard as an ROTC instructor; he returned there as a law student in 1919 and received his LL.

Women's rights leader Alice Paul consulted both Pound and Albert Levitt in drafting what became known as the Equal Rights Amendment to give equality to women without eroding special protections.

Albert Levitt, seeking to avoid conflict with existing laws protecting women, drafted at least 75 versions of the ERA for Paul.

Albert Levitt consulted with future Supreme Court justice Felix Frankfurter, who was then counsel to the Washington, DC, Minimum Wage Board.

Albert Levitt apologized to both, and wrote Paul that he could no longer consult anyone he trusted about the ERA for fear of being betrayed again.

Albert Levitt proclaimed himself the luckiest man in the world, lucky because he had married a feminist, who would not allow the husband to be a czar.

Albert Levitt resigned his chaplaincy of the Harvard Unitarians in June 1920 to accept a position as professor of law at the George Washington University Law School.

Albert Levitt made a deep impression there as, according to the school's web site, "likely the most unusual, colorful, and, some would contend, eccentric law teacher in the history of Washington and Lee" but as a "teacher of great ability".

Albert Levitt was involved in conflict with the law school dean, and when his contract expired in 1927, it was not renewed.

In 1927, Albert Levitt won a $500 first prize offered by the publisher of Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy for an essay on the legal and social aspects of the murder in the book.

Albert Levitt next taught law at Brooklyn Law School of St Lawrence University, from 1927 to 1930.

Albert Levitt began to involve himself in public affairs, switching from the Democratic to the Republican Party over his support for Prohibition.

Albert Levitt stated that he had been a Republican until World War I, but had been impressed by Wilson's efforts to keep the nation out of war, and thereafter had remained a Democrat because of a close personal friendship with the 1924 Democratic candidate for president, John W Davis.

Albert Levitt announced in 1928 that he would challenge the incumbent Republican representative in Connecticut's 4th district, Schuyler Merritt, but fell short of the necessary petition signatures to be listed on the ballot.

Albert Levitt alleged the commission was in violation of state law by failing to require the New Haven Railroad to eliminate at-grade crossings at the pace required by law.

Albert Levitt was defeated in Redding, polling 98 votes as the two winning Republicans each received 376 votes.

The Waterbury Democrat, in an editorial titled "Too much Albert Levitt", accused him of being one of those "who continually criticize and offer no help in extracting our government from its precarious financial position".

In 1932, Albert Levitt ran for governor as the candidate of the Independent Republican Party, which supported Prohibition and endorsed Republican President Herbert Hoover, but which named its own candidates for other offices.

Governor Cross refused to debate Albert Levitt, who was defeated, polling only 5,125 votes out of just under 600,000 cast.

Albert Levitt proclaimed himself delighted with the results, as the Independent Republican vote for senator had been larger than the margin of defeat for Republican Senator Hiram Bingham, whom Albert Levitt had opposed.

Albert Levitt went to Washington in search of a job that would allow him to continue his anti-Roraback activities.

In July 1933, it was announced that Albert Levitt would be a special assistant to Attorney General Homer Cummings, not attached to a particular department in the Justice Department, but available to act on assignments.

In Washington, Albert Levitt was asked if there was a "Mrs Albert Levitt", and, when he responded there was not, found himself reputed to be a bachelor until he explained about Elsie Hill.

Albert Levitt remained involved in Connecticut politics, predicting in December 1933 that his Independent Republicans would help defeat the Roraback-controlled regular Republicans.

Divisions within the Independent Republican Party caused Albert Levitt to seek to form the Citizens Party.

Albert Levitt resigned from the Department of Justice to undertake the race, as Cummings had ruled that federal employees could not run for important positions.

Albert Levitt stated in an interview that he did not intend to be a public spectacle, but to live a lonely life, having brought a dog to assuage the loneliness, though both Elsie Hill and their daughter, Elsie Hill-Albert Levitt, came to St Thomas.

Hill obtained a prominent New York attorney to represent the islanders without fee, and in November 1936, Judge Albert Levitt ruled the disenfranchisement unconstitutional under the Nineteenth Amendment.

The local electoral board still refused to register women, and the following month, Judge Albert Levitt issued a writ of mandamus, forcing the board to comply.

Albert Levitt's resignation was accepted on August 1,1936, and he was again appointed a special assistant attorney general, to work in the Office of the Solicitor General.

Cummings let the press know Albert Levitt had acted without his knowledge or consent, and described his actions as "disgusting".

Albert Levitt publicly opposed the president's court-packing plan, and was listed as a witness before the Senate Judiciary Committee, though he was not called to testify.

In early July 1937, a Justice Department spokesman indicated that Albert Levitt was about to be dismissed, and he resigned.

Albert Levitt's nomination was controversial for political reasons, even though it was not then generally known he had been a Ku Klux Klan member, and for the first time in almost half a century, a presidential nomination of a senator was not immediately and unanimously confirmed.

Albert Levitt contended that since the law permitting justices to retire while keeping their full salary had been passed during the six-year term for which Black had been elected and that term had not yet expired, Black was ineligible under the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution.

Albert Levitt argued that because Van Devanter, as a retired justice, remained able to hear lower court cases, there was no vacancy.

Albert Levitt's stand embarrassed Cummings, who had publicly stated that the probability of a challenge to Black's seating was so low as to be negligible, and put the attorney general in the position of having to denigrate the legal knowledge of a man he had appointed to a judgeship.

Borah questioned whether Albert Levitt could get a day in court on his arguments.

Albert Levitt then asked for permission to file a brief requesting that Black be required to show cause why he should be allowed to remain as a justice.

In late 1937, Albert Levitt returned to Connecticut, and, as Roraback had died, sought reconciliation with the Connecticut Republican Party, offering suggestions as to how to send an anti-New Deal congressional delegation to Washington.

Albert Levitt was by then a critic of the Roosevelt administration.

Albert Levitt sought the Republican nomination for the House of Representatives from the 4th district in 1938, but was defeated.

Albert Levitt successfully sued to get his name, and the Union Party, on the ballot.

Stoddard was convicted and fined $50, but Albert Levitt appealed the case.

In 1939, Albert Levitt taught the law of finance at the New York University School of Commerce.

In 1941, Albert Levitt served as a special adviser to the Office of Production Management, Priorities Division.

Albert Levitt taught at the Hastings School of Law in California, from 1942 to 1943.

Albert Levitt suggested that the proposals would result in a "Fascist oligarchy" of less than a dozen men as dictators of the world.

Albert Levitt, running only in the Republican primary, challenged the practice in court, unsuccessfully.

Albert Levitt was defeated in the June 4,1946, primary.

Albert Levitt served as minister at All Souls Unitarian Church in Santa Monica.

In 1947, Levitt wrote to J Parnell Thomas, chair of the House Un-American Activities Committee, requesting that the committee "investigate the un-American activities of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States"; he offered to testify.

Albert Levitt ran again for office in 1948, this time for the California State Assembly from the 37th district in Santa Barbara County.

Albert Levitt again challenged the practice of cross filing, and was again denied, a ruling upheld by the California Supreme Court.

Albert Levitt was defeated by Stanley T Tomlinson, who successfully cross-filed.

In 1949, when Francis Cardinal Spellman accused Eleanor Roosevelt of being anti-Catholic in her writings, Albert Levitt wrote to the cleric and alleged that he had forfeited his American citizenship and was an alien representing a foreign power, the Vatican.

In December 1949, Albert Levitt announced that he would be a candidate for the Republican nomination for the 1950 Senate election in California.

In February 1950, Albert Levitt challenged Nixon to a debate, and accused the congressman of dodging it.

Albert Levitt stated that Nixon, known as an anti-communist, had in fact been responsible for aiding the Communist Party.

Albert Levitt expected that his main rival in the Republican primary would be the incumbent, Democratic Senator Sheridan Downey, and stated that Nixon "hasn't a chance".

Albert Levitt was booed when he accused Nixon of pretending to fight communism while in fact aiding these three foes of the American way of life.

Albert Levitt finished sixth out of the six candidates in the Republican primary, garnering 15,929 votes to Nixon's 740,465, trailing even Meyer, who received 18,783.

In 1952, Albert Levitt ran for Congress from California's 22nd district, a newly created seat in the San Fernando Valley.

Albert Levitt tried and failed to have Joseph F Holt barred from the ballot on the grounds he was a member of the armed forces.

Albert Levitt took a case as special counsel to the municipality of New Britain against the state highway department, seeking to alter the course of a freeway planned to go through New Britain.

Albert Levitt sued Smith for defamation, and won a judgment of $750.

Albert Levitt has been many times a candidate for public office.

When obtaining the marriage license, Albert Levitt gave an address of Ventura, California.

Later that year, Albert Levitt received considerable publicity, including television interviews, by styling himself head of the Republican League of California, a group unknown to Republican officials, and opposing the renomination of Nixon, who was by then vice president.

Albert Levitt was defeated in the Republican primary by Senator Styles Bridges, 86,837 votes to 6,256.

Albert Levitt finished last out of six candidates, with under 2 percent of the vote.

Albert Levitt finished fifth of seven candidates with 822 votes out of some 63,000 cast.

Albert Levitt appeared for the defendants in federal court in North Carolina by special permission, and the case was settled for $1.

Albert Levitt sued to have a plan implemented in time for the 1964 elections, but a three-judge panel of federal judges refused, citing the disruption it would cause in the election process.

Albert Levitt served as national director of the Thomas Jefferson Society of the United States.

Albert Levitt continued to warn against the "subversive" political activities of the Catholic Church.

Albert Levitt spent time devising a peace plan for Rhodesia, making proposals for power-sharing between the races there.

Albert Levitt corresponded with several officials, both in Britain and in Africa.

In September 1967, Levitt appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, opining that President Lyndon B Johnson was violating the Constitution by prosecuting the Vietnam War and by imposing sanctions on Rhodesia.

Albert Levitt died on June 18,1968, in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Albert Levitt was survived by his second wife, Lilla Grew Levitt, his daughter, and a granddaughter.