Ep. 141 Morris Ernst, Free Speech Renegade

Morris Ernst may be the most influential free speech lawyer
you’ve never heard of. He was the longtime general counsel for
the ACLU, helped found the National Lawyers Guild, and just about
single-handedly whittled away at obscenity laws in the United
States — even litigating the famous “Ulysses” case, which
overturned a 13-year ban on James’ Joyce’s renowned novel.


But he was an enigma: A staunch anti-communist and sometimes
red-baiter, a close confidant of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, an
unofficial PR agent for the FBI, and, later in his life, a
crusader against the relative sexual permissiveness of the 1960s
and ‘70s.


On today’s episode of So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast, we
are joined by University at Buffalo School of Law Professor
Samantha Barbas to discuss her new book, “The Rise and Fall of
Morris Ernst, Free Speech Renegade.”


Show notes:


Transcript

“The Rise and Fall of Morris Ernst, Free Speech Renegade” by
Samantha Barbas



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