Joseph Forer

File:University of Pennsylvania Law School-angled.JPG, where Forer studied law]]

Joseph Forer was born in 1911 in Trenton, New Jersey. He received a state scholarship for college.

{{cite news

| title = 60 AT JERSEY STATE GET SCHOLARSHIPS

| work = The New York Times

| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1927/07/17/archives/60-at-jersey-state-get-scholarships-rutgers-university-awards-are.html

| pages = S11

| date = 17 July 1927

| access-date = 28 October 2019}} Forer received his BA

{{cite news

| title = 353 TO GET DEGREES AT RUTGERS TODAY

| work = The New York Times

| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1930/06/06/archives/353-to-get-degrees-at-rutgers-today-164th-commencement-to-be-held.html

| pages = 15

| date = 6 June 1930

| access-date = 28 October 2019}} and MA

{{cite news

| title = Four Women Named To Rutgers Board

| work = The New York Times

| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1932/06/11/archives/four-women-named-to-rutgers-board-election-by-trustees-is-made.html

| pages = 16

| date = 11 June 1932

| access-date = 28 October 2019}} from Rutgers University, where he excelled as a student and joined Phi Beta Kappa.

{{cite news

| title = 110 HONOR STUDENTS LISTED AT RUTGERS

| work = The New York Times

| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1929/03/10/archives/110-honor-students-listed-at-rutgers-dr-marvin-announces-those.html

| pages = L34

| date = 10 March 1929

| access-date = 28 October 2019}}

{{cite news

| title = 26 RUTGERS STUDENTS RATE HONOR SCHOOL

| work = The New York Times

| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1929/10/06/archives/126-rutgers-students-rate-honor-school-five-new-yorkers-are-among.html

| pages = N2

| date = 6 October 1929

| access-date = 28 October 2019}}

{{cite news

| title = 13 JOIN PHI BETA KAPPA

| work = The New York Times

| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1930/10/09/archives/13-join-phi-beta-kappa-jersey-unit-elects-rutgers-and-state-womens.html

| pages = 56

| date = 9 October 1930

| access-date = 28 October 2019}}

{{cite news

| title = RUTGERS ELECTS 109 TO THE HONOR SCHOOL

| work = The New York Times

| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1930/10/17/archives/rutgers-elects-109-to-the-honor-school-39-seniors-and-36-juniors.html

| pages = 43

| date = 17 October 1930

| access-date = 28 October 2019}}

{{cite news

| title = WARD WINS RUTGERS PRIZE

| work = The New York Times

| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1931/04/11/archives/ward-wins-rutgers-prize-cooper-cash-grant-of-250-for-skil-in-logle.html

| pages = 28

| date = 11 April 1931

| access-date = 28 October 2019}} In 1936, he received a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

{{cite book

| first = Joan

| last = Quigley

| title = Just Another Southern Town: Mary Church Terrell's Fight for Racial Justice in the Nation's Capital

| publisher = Oxford University Press

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=BP7VCgAAQBAJ

| pages = 4 (Terrell), 13 (location), 19, 144 (schooling, career), 155, 164, 227

| date = 2016

| access-date = 20 March 2017

| isbn = 9780199371518}}

{{cite journal

| title = In Memoriam

| journal = The Law Alumni Journal

| url = https://www.law.upenn.edu/alumni/alumnijournal/journal_archive/PLJ1986fall.pdf

| pages = 14

| date = Fall 1986

| access-date = 28 October 2019}} In June 1936, Forer received UPenn's "Peter McCall Prize."

{{cite news

| title = University of Pennsylvania Bestows Prizes on the Eve of Its Commencement

| work = The New York Times

| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1936/06/10/archives/university-of-pennsylvania-bestows-prizes-on-the-eve-of-its.html

| pages = 28

| date = 10 June 1936

| access-date = 28 October 2019}} Forer also served on the University of Pennsylvania Law Review as contributor,

{{cite news

| title = University of Pennsylvania Law Review - January 1935

| publisher = University of Pennsylvania

| url = https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=8710&context=penn_law_review

| date = January 1935

| access-date = 28 October 2019}} editor,

{{cite news

| title = University of Pennsylvania Law Review - February 1935

| publisher = University of Pennsylvania

| url = https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=8717&context=penn_law_review

| date = February 1935

| access-date = 28 October 2019}}

{{cite news

| title = University of Pennsylvania Law Review - June 1935

| publisher = University of Pennsylvania

| url = https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=8744&context=penn_law_review

| date = June 1935

| access-date = 28 October 2019}} and managing editor.

{{cite news

| title = University of Pennsylvania Law Review - November 1935

| publisher = University of Pennsylvania

| url = https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=8824&context=penn_law_review

| date = November 1935

| access-date = 28 October 2019}}

{{cite news

| title = University of Pennsylvania Law Review - December 1935

| publisher = University of Pennsylvania

| url = https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=8833&context=penn_law_review

| date = December 1935

| access-date = 28 October 2019}}

{{cite news

| title = University of Pennsylvania Law Review - February 1936

| publisher = University of Pennsylvania

| url = https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=8849&context=penn_law_review

| date = February 1936

| access-date = 28 October 2019}}

{{cite news

| title = University of Pennsylvania Law Review - March 1936

| publisher = University of Pennsylvania

| url = https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=8857&context=penn_law_review

| date = March 1936

| access-date = 28 October 2019}}

{{cite news

| title = University of Pennsylvania Law Review - April 1936

| publisher = University of Pennsylvania

| url = https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=8863&context=penn_law_review

| date = April 1936

| access-date = 28 October 2019}}

{{cite news

| title = University of Pennsylvania Law Review - May 1936

| publisher = University of Pennsylvania

| url = https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=8870&context=penn_law_review

| date = May 1936

| access-date = 28 October 2019}}

{{cite news

| title = University of Pennsylvania Law Review - June 1936

| publisher = University of Pennsylvania

| url = https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=8878&context=penn_law_review

| date = June 1936

| access-date = 28 October 2019}}

File:1099 14th Street – National Labor Relations Board - sign.JPG NW in Washington, D.C., the NLRB HW (2013), whete Forer worked in the 1930s]]

After graduating from law school, Forer joined the United States Treasury.

{{cite book

| title = Hearings To Investigate Executive Agencies: Hearings Before the Special Committee to Investigate Executive Agencies, House of Representatives, Seventy-eighth Congress, First Session

| publisher = US GPO

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=FeE9TlPYrOMC

| pages = 2553 (committee's name), 2563 (correct price), 2571–2583 (testimony), 2586 (pretrial conference), 2590–1 (appeal)

| date = October 1944

| access-date = 28 October 2019}}

Around 1937, like his friend David Rein, Forer joined the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Also in 1937, Forer became a founder of the National Lawyers Guild. He served as chairman of the District Affairs Committee of the DC chapter of the National Lawyers Guild.

{{cite book

| first = Marvin

| last = Caplan

| title = Farther Along: A Civil Rights Memoir

| publisher = LSU Press

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=G25fxCJFheYC

| page = 113 (chairman), 114 (afternoon), 115 (NLG opinion), 116 (next door), 122 (Trenton Terrace), 131 (HUAC), 140 (Terrell's tray)

| date = 1999

| access-date = 20 March 2017| isbn = 9780807141267

}} During 1940, he worked for the Rural Electrification Administration.

Starting in 1941, he worked in the Office of Price Administration (OPA). Thomas Irwin Emerson (1907–1991), later a First Amendment scholar, worked with Forer at the NLRB and supervised Forer at OPA.

{{cite book

| article = Thomas Emerson

| title = The First Amendment Encyclopedia

| publisher = Oxford University Press

| url = https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1295/thomas-emerson

| date = 2016

| access-date = 3 July 2019}} Another OPA colleague was Herman A. Greenberg, director of food enforcement; Forer was direct of apparel and industrial materials enforcement.

{{cite news

| title = Inaction Charged on Housing Delays

| work = The New York Times

| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1946/05/15/archives/inaction-charged-on-housing-delays-mrs-rosenman-tells-officials.html

| pages = 21

| date = 15 May 1946

| access-date = 28 October 2019}}

{{cite news

| title = Council Is Formed to Spur Industry

| work = The New York Times

| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1946/08/13/archives/council-is-formed-to-spur-industry-29member-group-will-work-with.html

| pages = 34, 38

| date = 13 August 1946

| access-date = 28 October 2019}} In his role, Forer helped enforce pricing policies on black market lumber.

{{cite news

| title = OPA To Press Fight on Price Violators

| work = The New York Times

| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1946/05/01/archives/opa-to-press-fight-on-price-violators-enforcement-drive-to-center.html

| pages = 51

| date = 1 May 1946

| access-date = 28 October 2019}}

{{cite news

| title = Criminal Trials by U.S. Looming In War on Lumber Black Market

| work = The New York Times

| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1946/05/03/archives/criminal-trials-by-us-looming-in-war-on-lumber-black-market.html

| pages = 1

| date = 3 May 1946

| access-date = 28 October 2019}} He noted the need for training of OPA agents in the field.

{{cite web

| title = Dress Research at the National Archives

| publisher = Costume Society of America

| url = http://costumesocietyamerica.com/dress-research-at-the-national-archives/

| access-date = 28 October 2019}} He appeared in legal cases on behalf of OPA, e.g., Porter v. Senderowitz.

{{cite web

| title = Porter v. Senderowitz, 158 F.2d 435 (3d Cir. 1946)

| publisher = Justia US Law

| url = https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/158/435/1473423/

| access-date = 28 October 2019}} He upheld legal action against J.C. Penney.

{{cite book

| title = Historical Reports on War Administration; Price Administration Office, General Publication 3: Wartime Apparel Price Control

| publisher = United States Temporary Controls Office

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=VICeaW3L0v4C

| pages = 89–91

| date = 1947

| access-date = 28 October 2019}}

While at OPA, Forer first appeared before congressional hearings. On September 27, 1944, as an OPA director, Forer testified as an OPA "attorney for the Division" of Apparel before a "Select Committee of the House of Representatives to Investigate Acts of Executive Agencies Beyond the Scope of Their Authority." He described himself at an "enforcement attorney" when questioned by US Representative Fred A. Hartley Jr. (Rep-NJ) (soon to be co-sponsor of the Taft-Hartley Act). He advised OPA when companies charges prices higher than government price ceilings. Hartley attacked Forer and colleagues for failing to grant pretrial conference and for appealing an adverse ruling.

In August 1948, Forer and Greenberg resigned from the OPA. Later that year, David Rein joined Forer as private practice law partners in Washington, DC. They formed "Greenberg, Forer & Rein" with Herman Greenberg (who represented Julian Wadleigh just prior to his appearing as a witness during the Hiss-Chambers case).

{{cite book

| title = Hearings on Proposed Legislation to Curb or Control the Communist Party of the United States

| publisher = US GPO

| date = 1948

| pages = 587 (Rein, address), 673 (Forer), 674 (Forer), 761 (Rein), 1342 (Forer, address, attorney, government agencies), 1432 (Greenberg, Forer & Rein; Wadleigh), 1438–1439 (Greenberg no longer Wadleigh), 1444 (Greenberg)

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=bdEJAAAAIAAJ

| access-date = 4 July 2019}}

{{cite book

| title = Hearings Regarding Communism Party in Labor Unions the United States

| publisher = US GPO

| date = 1947

| pages = [https://archive.org/details/hearingsregardin00unit/page/109 109]

| url = https://archive.org/details/hearingsregardin00unit

| access-date = 4 July 2019}} By 1949, the firm was still "Greenberg, Forer & Rein" at 1105 K Street NW in Washington.

{{cite book

| title = Lawyers Referral List, 1948-1949

| publisher = National Lawyers Guild

| date = 1948

| pages = 9

}} In 1950, they listed as "Forer & Rein" at 711 14 Street NW in 718 of the Kass Building.

{{cite book

| title = Lawyers Referral List, 1949-1950

| publisher = National Lawyers Guild

| date = 1950

}} One of their early clients was the Food, Tobacco, Agricultural, and Allied Workers (FTA-CIO),

{{cite book

| first = Robert Rodgers

| last = Korstad

| title = Civil Rights Unionism: Tobacco Workers and the Struggle for Democracy in the Mid-twentieth-century South

| publisher = University of North Carolina Press

| date = 2003

| pages = 338–339

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=5MOtXyGrG7IC

| access-date = 4 July 2019| isbn = 9780807854549

}} a "Communist-led union."

{{cite journal

| first = Robert

| last = Korstad

| title = Civil Rights Unionism

| journal = Jacobin

| date = May 2018

| url = https://www.jacobinmag.com/2018/05/civil-rights-unionism-local-22-korstad

| access-date = 4 July 2019}} Another early client was the National Maritime Union.

{{cite web

| title = National Maritime Union of America v. Herzog, 78 F. Supp. 146 (D.D.C. 1948)

| publisher = Justia

| url= https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/78/146/1880580/

| access-date = 4 July 2019}}

Together, they "represented more than 100 persons who had been termed 'unfriendly' witnesses by the House Committee on Un-American Activities, the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee headed by the late senator Joseph McCarthy."

{{cite news

| title = David Rein, Civil Rights Lawyer, Dies

| newspaper = The Washington Post

| url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1979/08/15/david-rein-civil-rights-lawyer-dies/e48bd72a-0bee-4b08-84b1-eccf98aed97e/

| date = 15 August 1975

| access-date = 20 March 2017}}

In July 1947, Forer represented the FTA CIO against R.J. Reynolds before HUAC when two members pled the Fifth Amendment when asked to name communists. The FTA claimed accusations before HUAC by witness Ann Mathews, who name them among 15 communist members within the union, was really an attack by RJR against an 8,000 FTA strike.

{{cite news

| first = Dillard

| last = Stokes

| title = CIO Cigarette Trio Refuse to Answer On Communism

| newspaper = The Washington Post

| pages = 2

| date = 24 July 1947

}}

In September 1947 during his second appearance before HUAC, Gerhard Eisler asked to have Herman Greenberg and Joseph Forer represent him.

{{cite book

| title = Tyranny and Music

| first1 = Joseph E.

| last1 = Morgan

| first2 = Gregory N.

| last2 = Reish

| publisher = Lexington Books

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=X9FHDwAAQBAJ

| pages = 8

| date = 26 December 2017

| access-date = 4 July 2019| isbn = 9781498546829

}}

On November 28, 1947, 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.

{{cite news

| title = On Discrimination: U.S. Ignores Plea Against D.C. Group

| newspaper = The Washington Post

| pages = B2

| date = 8 January 1948

}} In December 1947, Forer asked that US Attorney General Tom C. Clark investigate.

{{cite news

| title = Clark Asked To Investigate Covenant 'Plot'

| newspaper = The Washington Post

| pages = 14

| date = 11 December 1947

}}

In early December 1947, Forer and Rein represented the National Maritime Union CIO (NMU) 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.

{{cite news

| first = Louis

| last = Stark

| title = NMU Sues To Ban Taft Law Filings

| work = The New York Times

| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1947/12/04/archives/nmu-sues-to-ban-taft-law-filings-fight-on-noncommunist-oaths-as.html

| pages = 35

| date = 4 December 1947

}}

On January 26–28 and February 2, 1948, a hearing of the House Education and Labor Subcommittee, chaired by U.S. Representative Clare E. Hoffman, occurred on the topic of a strike by United Cafeteria and Restaurant Workers (Local 471) and its parent, the United Public Workers of America (UPWA), CIO, against Government Services, Inc. (GSI), which had already lasted nearly a month. Hoffman refused to let UPWA head Abram Flaxer read a statement and asked questions including whether Flaxer was a communist. One of his UAW attorneys, Nathan R. Witt, objected to "abuse of congressional power." When Forer rose to follow on from Witt, Hoffman asked him, "Are you the same Forer who defended Gerhard Eisler?" When Witt objected to Hoffman's question, which led Hoffman to eject Witt from the hearing.

{{cite book

| title = Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates

| publisher = US GPO

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=DfTkcLDCNO4C

| pages = D65

| date = 1948

| access-date = 9 November 2019}}

{{cite news

| first = Craig

| last = Simpson

| title = Against the cold wind: The 1948 cafeteria workers strike

| publisher = Washington Spark

| url = https://washingtonareaspark.com/2018/01/02/against-the-cold-wind-the-1948-cafeteria-workers-strike/

| date = 2 January 2018

| access-date = 20 March 2017}}

{{cite news

| first = Murray

| last = Marder

| title = Flaxer Refuses To Answer on Communism

| newspaper = The Washington Post

| pages = 1

| date = 2 January 2018

}} On January 26, 1948, UPWA negotiations director Alfred Bernstein (father of Carl Bernstein), charged that House committee agents had raided the union's offices. During January, William S. Tyson, solicitor for the Labor Department, and Robert N. Denham, general counsel for the National Labor Relations Board, both agreed that nothing in the Taft-Hartley Act prohibited GSI from bargaining with a non-complying union. However, Denham added, the Act intended to "eliminate Communist influence from unions by denying to such unions the services of NLRB."

{{cite news

| first = Frank

| last = Wilder

| title = Union Asserts Office Raided in GSI Strike

| newspaper = The Washington Post

| pages = 1, 6

| date = 27 January 1948

}}

In February 1948, Forer and Rein, as "CIO Attorneys," defended Arkansas strikers before the Supreme Court.

{{cite news

| first = Dillard

| last = Stokes

| title = High Court Is Baffled By Legal Tilt

| newspaper = The Washington Post

| pages = B9

| date = 5 February 1948

}}

In April–June 1948, Forer supported partner David Rein and Abraham J. Isserman in defending Gerhard Eisler, accused of a violation of 52 Stat. 942 (1938), 2 U.S.C.A. § 192 (refusal to testify) before the District Court of the United States for the District of Columbia (which Eisler lost) and then the United States Court of Appeals District of Columbia. (Belford Lawson Jr. (1901-1985), co-founder of the New Negro Alliance (NNA), filed an amicus curiae for the National Lawyers Guild.)

{{cite web

| title = Eisler v. United States, 170 F.2d 273 (D.C. Cir. 1948)

| publisher = Justia

| url= https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/170/273/1567880/

| access-date = 18 March 2017}}

Also in April–June 1948, Forer and Rein represented the National Maritime Union and its leaders Joseph Curran and Ferdinand Smith before the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia with help from Herman Rosenfeld of New York.

In early May 1948, Lee Pressman joined Forer in representing Gerhard Eisler and four others (Irving Potash, vice president of the Fur and Leather Workers Union; Ferdinand C. Smith, secretary of the National Maritime Union; Charles A. Doyle of the Gas, Coke and Chemical Workers Union, and John Williamson, labor secretary of the CPUSA). On May 5, 1946, Pressman and 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.

{{cite news

| title = Eisler, 4 Others Win New Hearings: Goldsborough Enjoins Their Deportation Pending Compliance With 1946 Law

| work = The New York Times

| url= https://www.nytimes.com/1948/05/06/archives/eisler-4-others-win-new-hearings-goldsborough-enjoins-their.html

| pages = 18

| date = 6 May 1948

| access-date = 18 March 2017}}

{{cite book

| first = Gilbert J.

| last = Gall

| title = Pursuing Justice: Lee Pressman, the New Deal, and the CIO

| publisher = SUNY Press

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=xCYoLnaWXdoC

| pages = 237–238

| date = 1998

| access-date = 4 July 2019| isbn = 9780791441039

}} (In May 1949, Eisler jumped bail and secretly boarded the Polish liner MS Batory bound for London.Aksamit Barbara, Batory. Gwiazdy, skandale i miłość na transatlantyku. Ed. "Gazeta Wyborcza", Warsaw (Poland) [2017], p. 242-245.) On May 20, 1948, Forer, as a representative of the National Lawyers Guild, "assailed the Mundt bill as a threat to civil liberties" during a meeting of the Washington, DC, committee of the Conference on Human Welfare.

{{cite news

| title = Conference Elects And Hears Attack on Mundt Bill

| newspaper = The Washington Post

| pages = 4

| date = 21 May 1948

}}

On June 28, 1948, Forer, as a member of the local "D.C. Committee for Wallace," chaired a subcommittee meeting regarding the platform of the Progressive Party and its presidential candidate Henry A. Wallace. They were preparing for the 1948 Progressive National Convention on July 23–25, 1948, in Philadelphia. Issues addressed by the subcommittee included: placing European relief under supervision of the United Nations (rather than the Marshall Plan), disarmament of all nations, without exception, efforts to iron out differences with the USSR, civil rights, a veterans' bonus, end to "thought control" of Government workers, repeal of the Taft-Hartley Act with reenactment of the National Labor Relations Act, and support for the new state of Israel.

{{cite news

| title = 3 Show Up At Wallace Plank Session

| newspaper = The Washington Post

| pages = 8

| date = 30 June 1948

}}

In 1949, during the trial of Judith Coplon, Forer examined investigative files submitted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Based on these, he drafted a report for the National Lawyers Guild's Special Committee to Study Certain Alleged Practices of the FBI. In January 1950, the NLG published it as a report for US President Harry S. Truman that accused the FBI of "systematic search by illegal methods" into the politics of thousands of private citizens, reported The Washington Post. The report focused on FBI methods used against Coplon. The report recommended that the President stop such practices. It also recommended that the President appoint a committee of private citizens to investigate the FBI. In addition to Forer, contributors to the report were NLG president Clifford J. Durr, Frederick K. Beutel, Thomas I. Emmerson, O. John Rogge, James A. Cobb, and Robert J. Silberstein.

{{cite news

| first = Alfred

| last = Friendly

| author-link = Alfred Friendly

| title = Lawyers Accuse FBI of Probing Beliefs

| newspaper = The Washington Post

| page = 4

| date = 23 January 1950

}}

File:Einstein-cartoon1.jpg, shed of "Pacifism" wings, standing near pillar of "World Peace," rolling up sleeves and holding sword of "Preparedness" (by Charles R. Macauley, {{Circa|1933}})]]

From 1951 to 1953, Forer, with John Abt and Vito Marcantonio, represented the CPUSA in the matter of Herbert Brownell, Jr., Attorney General of the United States, Petitioner v. the Communist Party of the United States of America, Respondent.

{{cite web

| title = Subversive Activities Control Board: Herbert Brownell, Jr., Attorney General of the United States, Petitioner v. the Communist Party of the United States of America, Respondent: Report of the Board

| publisher = U.S. Government Printing Office

| url = https://archive.org/stream/herbertbrownellj1956unit#page/n7/mode/2up/search/forer

| place = Washington, DC

| page = 1

| date = 1953

| access-date = 21 March 2017}}

{{cite web

| title = Home

| publisher = I Vote My Conscience: The Debates, Speeches, and Writings of Vito Marcantonio

| url = http://www.vitomarcantonio.org/

| access-date = 24 March 2017}}

{{cite book

| first = Vito

| last = Marcantonio

| title = I Vote My Conscience

| publisher = Vito Marcantonio Memorial

| url = http://www.vitomarcantonio.com/oa_politician_social_worker_lawyer.html

| pages = 477–482

| date = 1956

| access-date = 24 March 2017}}

{{cite book

| first = Vito

| last = Marcantonio

| editor = Annette T. Rubenstein

| title = I Vote My Conscience

| publisher = VitoMarcantonio.com

| url = http://vitomarcantonio.com/vm_a%20new%20intro%20--%20Annette%20T%20Rubinstein.html

| date = 1956

| access-date = 24 March 2017}}

Also starting in 1951, Forer represented numerous cases in the United States District Court District of Columbia including Bart, Berman, Branca, and Hiskey.

{{cite book

| title = United States v. Emspak, 95 F. Supp. 1010 (D.D.C. 1951)

| publisher = Justia

| url = https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/95/1010/2290965/

| access-date = 4 July 2019}}

On April 8, 1953, Forer represented Howard Selsam of the Jefferson School of Social Science.{{cite book |last=Selsam |first=Howard |year=1953 |title=Testimony of Howard Selsam before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee To Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws. [Hearings on] Subversive Influence in the Educational Process. Part 7 : hearings before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee To Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, Eighty-Third Congress, first session, on Apr. 7, 8, 1953. |url=http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/bc/senate_1952/selsam.html |location=Washington, DC |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office. |access-date=7 May 2014}}

On April 24, 1953, Forer represented William Frauenglass, an English teacher at the James Madison High School in Brooklyn, New York, before the United States Senate Subcommittee on Internal Security.

{{cite book

| title = Subversive Influence in the Educational Process

| publisher = US GPO

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=3cIHAAAAMAAJ

| pages = 838–841

| date = 1952

| access-date = 3 September 2018}} Reading of the testimony, world-famous scientist Albert Einstein wrote Frauenglass a letter,

{{cite web

| title = Einstein to William Frauenglass

| publisher = Einstein Virtuell

| url = http://einstein-virtuell.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/VEA/SC516287227_MOD-1744214250_SEQ1202484_SL861364620_en.html

| access-date = 3 September 2018}} which reached The New York Times (Einstein had added a postscript stating the letter "need not remain confidential"), advising "every intellectual called before a Congressional investigating committee should refuse to testify, and 'must be prepared for jail and economic ruin, in short, for the sacrifice of his personal welfare in the interest of the cultural welfare of his country'."

{{cite news

| first = Leonard

| last = Buder

| title = Refuse to Testify,' Einstein Advises Intellectuals Called In by Congress

| work = The New York Times

| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1953/06/12/archives/-refuse-to-testify-eins

| date = 12 June 1953 | access-date = 3 September 2018}} Frauenglass did refuse to testify further – and he did lose his job.

{{cite web

| title = Einstein, Plumbers, and McCarthyism

| publisher = Institute for Advanced Study

| url = https://www.ias.edu/ideas/2017/einstein-mccarthyism

| date = 2017

| access-date = 3 September 2018}} (See "Political views of Albert Einstein")

In 1956, Forer and partner Rein supported Harold I. Cammer in defense of Ben Gold in Ben Gold v. United States in the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

{{cite web

| title = Ben Gold v. United States, 237 F.2d 764 (D.C. Cir. 1956)

| publisher = Court Listener

| url = https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/240516/ben-gold-v-united-states/

| access-date = 4 July 2019}} On February 29, 1959, partner Herman A. Greenberg appeared before the SISS as counsel for Mark Zborowski (a Soviet spy involved in the deaths of Lev Sedov and his father Leon Trotsky as well as spying on David Dallin, Victor Kravchenko).

{{cite book

| title = Scope of Soviet Activity in the U.S.

| publisher = US GPO

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=KF9FAQAAMAAJ

| pages = 77–101 (Zborowski)

| date = 1957

| access-date = 27 October 2019}}

In 1957, Forer supported partner David Rein in Rowoldt v. Perfetto before the United States Supreme Court with support from Ann Fagan Ginger.

{{cite web

| title = Rowoldt v. Perfetto (1957)

| publisher = CaseLaw

| url = https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/355/115.html

| access-date = 4 July 2019}} 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 Forer and Rein as "attorneys defending Charles Rowoldt" before the Supreme Court on 15 October 1956. The account even included a list of guests for 21 tables.

{{cite book

| title = Communist Political Subversion

| publisher = US GPO

| url = https://archive.org/details/communistpolitic02unit

| pages = [https://archive.org/details/communistpolitic02unit/page/7104 7104] (Lamp announcement), 7333-7349

| date = 1957

| access-date = 27 October 2019}}

In 1958, Forer represented Clara Hutcherson Saba before HUAC.

{{cite web

| title = Communist Activities in the South

| publisher = U.S. Government Printing Office

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=s9UJAAAAIAAJ

| page = 2648

| date = July 1958

| access-date = 20 March 2017}}

In 1961, Forer and Nathan Witt represented the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers in Robert F. Kennedy, Attorney General of the United States, Petitioner, v. International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers, Respondent before the Subversive Activities Control Board.

{{cite book

| title = Robert F. Kennedy, Attorney General of the United States, Petitioner, v. International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers, Respondent

| publisher = US GPO

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=TlA_AAAAIAAJ

| date = 1961

| access-date = 30 July 2020

}}

File:Mary Church Terrell - NARA - 559207.tif by Betsy Graves Reyneau, 1888–1964]]

In May 1949, Dr. Mary Church Terrell decided to take on the issue of desegregation head-on. She consulted Forer. Forer led the National Lawyers Guild's DC chapter in submitting an opinion in their favor. With such advice, Dr. Terrell and colleagues Clark F. King, Essie Thompson, and Arthur F. Elmer entered the segregated Thompson's Restaurant, next door to the offices of Forer and Rein's office at 711 14th Street NW, in Washington, DC, between H an G Streets cut by New York Avenue and across the street from the Trans-Lux Theatre. When refused service, Terrell & Co. sued.

Attorney Ringgold Hart, representing Thompson, argued on April 1, 1950, that District laws were unconstitutional.{{citation needed|date=July 2019}}

Regardless, Forer's research found that the U.S. Congress had jurisdiction over DC and so could overrule segregation; Charles H. Houston, dean of Howard University Law School concurred. Specifically, Forer found that anti-segregation laws had passed and been enforced in the 1870s, including a case involving Harvey's Restaurant in 1874.

File:Oblique facade 2, US Supreme Court.jpg]]

The case District of Columbia v. John R. Thompson Co. reached the U.S. Supreme Court. Forer and Rein argued the case. On June 8, 1953, the court ruled that segregated eating places in Washington, DC, were unconstitutional.

The Washington Post recounted in 1985, "Four days after the Supreme Court ruled, Mary Terrell and the three other original complainants went back to Thompson's. Joe Forer followed them in. As he recalls the moment, the manager, himself, came over and personally, even obsequiously, carried Mary Terrell's tray to the table."

{{cite news

| title = City Voices

| newspaper = The Washington Post

| url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1985/04/25/city-voices/93621dd6-dd69-4ba5-a212-3508a06d8219/

| date = 25 April 1985

| access-date = 20 March 2017}}

{{cite web

| first = Carl

| last = Bernstein

| title = The Washington I Once Knew

| website = The Daily Beast

| url = http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2009/01/20/the-washington-i-once-knew.html

| date = 20 January 2009

| access-date = 20 March 2017}}

Between 1948 and 1951 alone, Forer & Rein dealt with more than 20 cases before the United States Supreme Court.

{{cite book

| first = Ellen

| last = Schrecker

| title = Many Are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America

| publisher = Princeton University Press

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=6uM9DwAAQBAJ

| pages = 227, 304, 422 (fn), 465 (fn), 518 (fn)

| date = 29 August 1999

| access-date = 4 July 2019| isbn = 9780691048703

}}

Forer argued several cases involving the First Amendment to the United States Constitution:

• 1948: Cole v. Arkansas

{{cite web

| title = U.S. Reports: Cole v. Arkansas, 333 U.S. 196 (1948)

| publisher = Library of Congress

| url = https://www.loc.gov/item/usrep333196/

| access-date = 4 July 2019}}

{{cite web

| title = Cole v. Arkansas (333 U.S. 196)

| publisher = Justia

| url = https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Cole_v._Arkansas_(333_U.S._196)

| access-date = 4 July 2019}}

{{cite web

| title = Cole v. Arkansas, 333 U.S. 196 (1948)

| publisher = Justia

| url = https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/333/196/

| access-date = 4 July 2019}}

{{cite web

| title = Cole v. Arkansas

| publisher = LawPipe

| url = https://www.lawpipe.com/U.S.-Supreme-Court/Cole_v_Arkansas.html

| access-date = 4 July 2019}} (with David Rein, both serving as attorneys for the CIO)

• 1960:
• Chaunt v. United States

{{cite web

| title = Chaunt v. United States

| publisher = Myattorney.com

| url = http://myattorneyusa.com/storage/upload/files/matters/chaunt-v-us.pdf

| access-date = 4 July 2019}}

• Kimm v. Rosenberg
• 1961: Communist Party of the United States v. Subversive Activities Control Board
• 1964: Aptheker v. Secretary of State
• 1967: Giles v. Maryland

{{cite web

| title = Giles-Johnson Defense Committee records

| publisher = University of Maryland

| url = https://archives.lib.umd.edu/repositories/2/resources/1045

| date = 1 August 1989

| access-date = 20 March 2017}}

• 1969: Watts v. United States

During Communist Party of the United States vs. Subversive Activities Control Board, 367 U.S. 1 (1961), Forer served as co-counsel with John Abt to represent the CPUSA.

{{cite web

| title = Communist Party of the United States vs. Subversive Activities Control Board, 367 U.S. 1 (1961)

| publisher = The Fire

| url = https://www.thefire.org/first-amendment-library/litigator/joseph-forer/

| date = 25 August 1977

| access-date = 20 March 2017}}

{{cite news

| title = High Court Hears Passport Appeal; U.S. Red Leaders Seeking Right to Go Abroad

| work = The New York Times

| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1964/04/22/archives/high-court-hears-passport-appeal-us-red-leaders-seeking-right-to-go.html

| date = 22 April 1964

| access-date = 20 March 2017}}

In 1961, three African-American youths (James Giles, John Giles, and Joseph Johnson) received death sentences for allegedly raping a white teenage girl. The severity of the sentence, suppression of evidence by the State of Maryland, and other actions led to public perception of racisim, which led to formation of the Giles-Johnson Defense Committee in July 1962 by Mrs. Howard Ross and 60 other Maryland residents. Forer joined the committee and came to lead its lawyers. Thanks to its efforts, Governor J. Millard Tawes commuted the death sentences to life imprisonment in October 1963. Their efforts led to a decision by Circuit Court Judge Walter Moorman for a new trial in 1964. On April 7, 1965, the State of Maryland asked its court of appeal to deny the Giles brothers, represented by Forer, a new trial.

{{cite news

| title = State Battles New Trial for Giles Brothers

| publisher = Frederick News Post

| url = https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/7659366/

| date = 8 April 1965

| access-date = 4 July 2019}} On July 13, 1965, the Maryland Court of Appeals refused to allow the trial.

{{cite web

| title = State v. Giles

| publisher = Leagle

| url = https://www.leagle.com/decision/1965697239md4581638

| access-date = 3 July 2019}} The case reached the Supreme Court as Giles v. Maryland, with argument on October 12, 1966, by Forer and (Nathan Witt's son) Hal Witt (hired by the NAACP

{{cite journal

| first = Bernard

| last = Garnett

| title = With Help from Whites, Youth: White Man Risks Threats to Save Two Negroes

| journal = Jet

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=47kDAAAAMBAJ

| page = 19

| date = 17 August 1967

| access-date = 20 March 2017}}) and decision on February 20, 1967.

{{cite web

| title = Giles v. Maryland

| publisher = WikiSource

| url = https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Giles_v._Maryland

| access-date = 20 March 2017}}

{{cite web

| title = Giles v. Maryland

| publisher = Leagle

| url = https://www.leagle.com/decision/1967452386us661433

| access-date = 3 July 2019}}

{{cite web

| title = Giles v. Maryland

| publisher = Case Law

| url = https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/386/66.html

| access-date = 3 July 2019}}{{Cite news |date=1982-02-20 |title=Nathan Witt, Labor Lawyer; Ex-Secretary of the N.L.R.B. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1982/02/20/obituaries/nathan-witt-labor-lawyer-ex-secretary-of-the-nlrb.html |access-date=2024-07-31 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}} In 1967, the Giles brothers received a retrial, which resulted in a drop of charges. In 1968 Joseph Johnson received a pardon by Governor Spiro T. Agnew.

Forer & Rein served the rights of striking workers, foreign-born aliens (with leftist leanings, e.g., Gerhard Eisler), and servicemen. They won for the National Council for American-Soviet Friendship the right to contest in court its designation by the attorney general as a "subversive organization."

Forer & Rein also represented members of the press on strike against The Washington Post in 1975.

In 1977, a release of internal memos of the FBI revealed, according to The Washington Post, that:

An Oct. 4, 1951 memo to Hoover said that a search of trash at the Washington offices of guild lawyers Joseph Forer and David Rein had uncovered a draft resolution urging President Truman to authorize a citizens' investigation of the FBI because of its alleged excesses in loyalty checks.

{{cite news

| first = Susanna

| last = McBee

| title = FBI Sifted Trash, Tapped Phones of Lawyers Guild

| newspaper = The Washington Post

| url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1977/08/25/fbi-sifted-trash-tapped-phones-of-lawyers-guild/6daee822-6e89-4c55-adcf-8c7da1ec4768/

| date = 25 August 1977

| access-date = 20 March 2017}}

Forer retired from practice with Rein in July 1978.

On June 9, 1979, the Washington, DC, chapter of the National Lawyers Guild held an evening event to celebrate his career.

Forer's daughter, Jane F. Gentleman, is a notable statistician.{{citation|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/washingtonpost/obituary.aspx?n=florence-forer&pid=3346353|title=Florence Forer|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=March 29, 2005|department=Paid death notices|access-date=2017-11-27}}{{citation|url=http://www.soph.uab.edu/awards/norwoodaward/firstaward|title=First Annual Janet L. Norwood Award|publisher=University of Alabama School of Public Health|access-date=2017-11-27}} He was the uncle of author Richard Forer. Forer is also great uncle to Deputy District Attorney, Professor and author Benny Forer, a cyber crime expert. {{citation|url=https://viterbi.usc.edu/directory/faculty/Forer/Benyomin |title=USC - Viterbi School of Engineering - Viterbi Faculty Directory }}

{{cite web

| title = Bio

| publisher = RichardForer.com

| url = http://www.richardforer.com/about-rich/bio/

| access-date = 20 March 2017}}

Forer, Rein, and many friends and associates lived at Trenton Terrace, 950 Mississippi Avenue SE, Washington DC 20032.

As a child, Carl Bernstein knew Joseph Forer and David Rein.

Forer died age 75 on June 20, 1986.

In 1954, following the outcome of the Thompson Case, schools in Washington, DC, began to desegregate, followed by jobs, buses, and government services.

Archives of the Giles-Johnson Defense Council reside at the Hornbake Library at the University of Maryland.

The Bancroft Library at the University of California/Berkeley houses papers of Forer along with other members (Osmond K. Fraenkel, Carol Weiss King, Samuel Neuburger, David Freedman, Justine Wise Polier, Jeremiah Gutman, Martin Popper, Abraham Isserman, Dennis Roberts, Robert J. Silberstein, Justice Raymond Peters, and George W. Crockett, Jr.) of the National Lawyers Guild and its predecessor, the International Juridical Association.

{{cite web

| title = Bancroft Library

| date = 2 February 2016

| publisher = Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute

| url = https://www.mclihumanrights.org/publications/bancroft-library/

| access-date = 4 July 2019}}

{{cite web

| title = Preliminary Inventory of the National Lawyers Guild Records, 1936-1999

| publisher = Online Archives of California (OAC)

| url = https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/ft9f59p17c/dsc/

| access-date = 4 July 2019}}

As historian Joan Quigley describes:

In the late 1940s, while Congress and the executive branch trawled for evidence of disloyalty and subversion, Rein and Forer immersed themselves in difficult and disfavored causes: opposing the Mundt-Nixon Bill; defending labor unions and alleged Communists; upholding the Bill of Rights. Rein ... represented Gerhard Eisler ... As progressives and New Deal veterans, Forer and Rein also nurtured ties to the National Lawyers Guild, which HUAC had branded a Communist front in 1944.

• Jane F. Gentleman
• Mary Church Terrell
• Charles H. Houston
• Mundt-Nixon Bill
• Gerhard Eisler
• HUAC
• National Lawyers Guild
• Lee Pressman
• John Abt

{{reflist}}

• {{cite web

| title = Forer and Rein (Washington, D.C.)

| publisher = WorldCat OCLC Identities

| url = http://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n2004071849/

| date = 2010

| access-date = 20 March 2017}}

• [http://www.vitomarcantonio.org/images.php VitoAntonio.com] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170322022149/http://www.vitomarcantonio.org/images.php |date=2017-03-22 }}: Image of Joseph Forer with John Abt and Vito Marcantonio
• [https://imgbro.com/photo/24545704007/joseph-forer-defender-of-civil-rights-1949-ca ImgBro]: Image of Joseph Forer (undated)
• [http://www.dchistory.org/uploads/research/HSW_Guide_EspionageResources.pdf Historical Society of Washington, DC]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Forer, Joseph}}

Category:1911 births

Category:1986 deaths

Category:Espionage in the United States

Category:Members of the Communist Party USA

Category:Rutgers University alumni

Category:University of Pennsylvania Law School alumni

Category:Lawyers who have represented the United States government

Category:American civil servants

Category:American activists