Joseph Forer was a 20th-century American attorney who, with partner David Rein, supported Progressive causes, including discriminated communists and African-Americans.
25 Facts About Joseph Forer
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Joseph Forer was born in 1911 in Trenton, New Jersey.
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Joseph Forer received his BA and MA from Rutgers University, where he excelled as a student and joined Phi Beta Kappa.
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Around 1937, like his friend David Rein, Joseph Forer joined the National Labor Relations Board.
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Also in 1937, Joseph Forer became a founder of the National Lawyers Guild.
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Joseph Forer served as chairman of the District Affairs Committee of the DC chapter of the National Lawyers Guild.
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Joseph Forer noted the need for training of OPA agents in the field.
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Joseph Forer advised OPA when companies charges prices higher than government price ceilings.
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On November 28,1947, Joseph Forer, as acting chairman of the First Southeast Chapter of the Southern Conference for Human Welfare, charged that members of a Congress Heights Citizens Association had made "references to vigilantism and to possible use of violence" to keep African-Americans out of that section of town.
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In December 1947, Forer asked that US Attorney General Tom C Clark investigate.
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In early December 1947, Joseph Forer and Rein represented the National Maritime Union CIO to file a challenge in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, asking the court to invalidate a filing for financial data of unions.
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In February 1948, Joseph Forer and Rein, as "CIO Attorneys," defended Arkansas strikers before the Supreme Court.
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In early May 1948, Lee Pressman joined Forer in representing Gerhard Eisler and four others.
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On May 5,1946, Pressman and Joseph Forer received a preliminary injunction so their defendants might have hearings with examiners unconnected with the investigations and prosecutions by examiners of the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
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In 1949, during the trial of Judith Coplon, Joseph Forer examined investigative files submitted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
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Also starting in 1951, Joseph Forer represented numerous cases in the United States District Court District of Columbia including Bart, Berman, Branca, and Hiskey.
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In 1957, Forer supported partner David Rein in Rowoldt v Perfetto before the United States Supreme Court with support from Ann Fagan Ginger.
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That same year, HUAC published part 2 of its report Communist Political Subversion, which included a highly detailed account of a "testimonial banquet" held on 11 October 1956 for Joseph Forer and Rein as "attorneys defending Charles Rowoldt" before the Supreme Court on 15 October 1956.
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Joseph Forer led the National Lawyers Guild's DC chapter in submitting an opinion in their favor.
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Specifically, Joseph Forer found that anti-segregation laws had passed and been enforced in the 1870s, including a case involving Harvey's Restaurant in 1874.
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Joseph Forer argued several cases involving the First Amendment to the United States Constitution:.
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Joseph Forer joined the committee and came to lead its lawyers.
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In 1968 Joseph Johnson received a pardon by Governor Spiro T Agnew.
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Joseph Forer, Rein, and many friends and associates lived at Trenton Terrace, 950 Mississippi Avenue SE, Washington DC 20032.
25.
Joseph Forer had defended people accused of communist sympathies before Eastland's Internal Security Subcommittee on several occasions.