Walter H. Pollak
Walter H. Pollak was an influential American attorney and civil liberties advocate, born to cultured European Jewish immigrant parents. He graduated from Harvard College in 1907 and Harvard Law School in 1910, and began his legal career in New York City, where he worked alongside notable figures such as Benjamin N. Cardozo. During World War I, Pollak contributed to the War Industries Board and later took on significant roles in various public service commissions, including the New York Park Commission and the Law Revision Commission.
Pollak is particularly recognized for his involvement in pivotal civil liberties cases during the 1920s and 1930s. He played a crucial role in the defense of John Scopes during the 1925 "monkey trial" regarding the teaching of evolution. Additionally, he argued two landmark freedom of speech cases before the Supreme Court: Gitlow v. New York and Whitney v. California, where he introduced the concept that First Amendment rights are protected from state infringement via the Fourteenth Amendment's due process clause. Pollak also successfully defended the "Scottsboro boys" in the 1930s, highlighting issues of racial injustice and unfair legal proceedings. His contributions have left a lasting impact on the landscape of American civil rights and liberties.
Subject Terms
Walter H. Pollak
Significance: A prominent New York lawyer, Pollak was an able defender of the rights of citizens whose activities or opinions were unpopular in American society. He argued two important freedom of speech cases before the Supreme Court.
The descendant of cultured European Jewish immigrants, Pollak graduated from Harvard in 1907 and from Harvard Law School in 1910. He was associated with several New York City law firms and practiced briefly with Benjamin N. Cardozo, who would later become a Supreme Court justice. During World War I (1917-1918), Pollak served with the War Industries Board. He accepted other state and federal public service assignments as well, most notably with the New York Park Commission (1929-1939), the state’s Law Revision Commission (1934-1940), and the National (Wickersham) Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement (1929-1931).
Pollak is best remembered, however, for his work in numerous civil liberties cases during the 1920’s and 1930’s. He helped in the defense of John Scopes in the famous “monkey trial” involving evolution in 1925. He argued before the Court two of the most important freedom of speech cases in U.S. history, Gitlow v. New York (1925) and Whitney v. California (1927). In the former, Pollak made the pioneering argument that the First Amendment freedoms of speech and the press were part of the “liberty” that no state could infringe under the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Although the Court upheld Gitlow’s conviction under New York’s criminal anarchy statute, it accepted the highly significant “incorporation” argument that Pollak had advanced. In 1932 and 1935 Pollak returned to the Court to defend successfully the “Scottsboro boys,” a group of young African Americans sentenced to death, after a patently unfair Alabama trial, for an alleged sexual assault on two white women.