"JUSTICE, JUSTICE SHALL YOU SEEK" is the biblical admonition that adorns
many Jewish lawyers' walls. Indeed, the Jewish legal tradition in America
has a long honored history, perhaps starting with the role models of Louis
Marshall, Louis Brandeis, Benjamin Cardozo, and Felix Frankfurter.
All
these giants of American law were deeply influenced by both their
religious roots and their commitment to American jurisprudence.
Principles of universal justice and equality coursed through their veins.
It is their shoulders this generation of Jews stands upon in seeking and
working for justice and equality. Perhaps one can excuse, then, Alan
Dershowitz's zeal when he charged that Representative Bob Barr of Georgia
was a racist for using the term "real Americans" at a Congressional
impeachment hearing although he found no fault with Bill or Hillary
Clinton for their use of the same exact phrase.
But, now, Alan Dershowitz
has shown his true colors, his true hypocrisy.
Alan Dershowitz, a professor of law at Harvard University, a noted
author, and at one time chief counsel to the AJC, used to be very
conscious of Jewish and minority rights in this country. Dershowitz
brooked no tolerance for racism and antisemitism and used his legal skills
to fight both. Now we see that he is only willing to attack, as allegedly
racist, those who represent the Republican Party but will actively -- when
the CSPAN cameras are not rolling -- defend an open racist and antisemite
like Matthew Hale. Perhaps de La Rochefoucaul had it right when he said
"Hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue."
Dershowitz's vice for publicity can be the only logical explanation for
his taking up the cause and case of Matthew Hale. Matthew Hale is a
twenty-seven-year-old graduate of the Southern Illinois University Law
School who recently passed the state bar examination.
However, the
Illinois Bar's character and fitness committee found Matthew Hale unworthy
of their endorsement and refused to grant Hale membership in the state
bar. Hale heads the World Church of the Creator, a white-supremacist
organization, dedicated to the principles that were defeated on the
battlefields in Europe during World War II.
According to his website and
the New York Times, Hale believes Adolph Hitler got one thing wrong
though: he should have promoted the supremacy of all whites, not just
Germans. Hale's office has an Israeli flag as a doormat and his wallpaper
consists of swastikas. His organization boasts sixteen commandments, the
third of which is "Remember that the inferior mud races are our deadly
enemies, and the most dangerous of all is the Jewish race. It is our
immediate objective to relentlessly expand the White Race, and keep
shrinking our enemies."
The Illinois State Bar should be commended for standing up for some
principles in whom it admits to practice in its state. Their message to
Hale was simply, as a lawyer one must swear to uphold the federal and
state constitutions. The Illinois Bar got it right when it wrote "If the
civilized world had no experience with Hitler, Matthew Hale might be
dismissed as a harmless crackpot. However, history teaches a different
lesson." Our federal and state constitutions have, by blood and ink, been
reworked over many years to take account of this history and encompass the
color-blind principle etched atop the United States Supreme Court: "Equal
Justice Under Law."
The law is the last redoubt against discrimination in this country and
one who admires Adolph Hitler, believes in segregation, runs a several
thousand member organization and website dedicated to Nazi principles and
segregation has no place in the legal profession. As Matthew Hale should
know, the Illinois Bar requires that no lawyer engage in "adverse
discriminatory treatment of litigants, jurors, witnesses, lawyers, and
others, based on race, sex, religion, or national origin." Just a brief
glance at Hale's website will reveal that he has nothing but contempt for
every value in the preceding prohibition.
Shame on Alan Dershowitz for counseling and representing such a blatant
and unabashed racist.. After all, it was through the celebrated legal
profession that Jews and African Americans, along with all minorities,
found their ultimate redress against bigotry. It was through that
profession that the United States could rededicate itself to the high
principles its Constitution and Declaration of Independence speak of.
"Justice, justice shall you seek" speaks of two justices, the ends of
justice and the means of justice. Neither are served by white-supremacist
lawyers. Hale's ends are an all-white country and his means can, at best,
be open to serious question and continuing doubt. Marshall, Brandeis,
Cardozo, and Frankfurter would have no truck with an activist bigot like
Matthew Hale and Alan Dershowitz should know better than to lend his
Jewish voice and professional skill to Hale's racist megaphone.
The worst
form of shame, we were taught by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, was having
none. Alan Dershowitz should be ashamed of any affiliation with Hale
whatsoever.
The legal community and the Jewish community deserve at least
that much.
Jewish World Review March 3, 1999 / 15 Adar, 5759
The Dersh does it again
The Dersh
By Matthew Brooks and Seth Leibsohn
Matthew Brooks is the Executive Director of the Jewish Policy Center, a
think tank based in Washington, DC. Seth Leibsohn is the Center's
Director of Policy.