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Harriet Pilpel

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Harriet Pilpel
Born
Harriet Fleischl

December 2, 1911
The Bronx,New York
DiedApril 23, 1991(1991-04-23)(aged 79)
Manhattan, New York
Alma materVassar College
Columbia University
Columbia Law School
OccupationAttorney
Spouse(s)Robert C. Pilpel (1933–1987)
Irvin B. Schwartz (1989–1991)
ChildrenJudith Ethel,
Robert Harry

Harriet Fleischl Pilpel(December 2, 1911 – April 23, 1991) was an American attorney andwomen's rightsactivist. She wrote and lectured extensively regarding thefreedom of speech,freedom of the press,andreproductive freedom.Pilpel served as general counsel for both theAmerican Civil Liberties UnionandPlanned Parenthood.During her career, she participated in 27 cases that came before theUnited States Supreme Court.Pilpel was involved in thebirth control movementand thepro-choice movement.She helped to establish the legal rights of minors to abortion and contraception.

Biography

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Early life and education

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Harriet Fleischl was born on December 2, 1911, to Julius and Ethel (néeLoewy) Fleischl inthe Bronx.[1]She had two younger sisters, Juliette and Ruth.[2]

She graduated fromVassar Collegein 1932. In 1933 she received her master's degree in public law and international law from theColumbia University.She received her J.D. in 1936 fromColumbia Law School,where she graduated second in her class.[2][3]She was hired by law firm Greenbaum, Wolf & Ernst following her graduation.[1]

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During her career, Pilpel played a role in 27 cases that were heard by theSupreme Court of the United States.[4]Her scholarly work was often cited by the Court and in legislative debate.[5]Law professorSylvia A. Lawwrites that Pilpel "was a brilliant legal tactician with a deep knowledge of the nuance of doctrine, but she was also acutely attuned to political opinion, organizational politics, the press, religious feeling, and the broad cultural forces that shape constitutional principles."[5]

Pilpel was a protégé ofMorris Ernst,who co-founded the ACLU. Through her work with Greenbaum, Wolf & Ernst, Pilpel was involved with thebirth control movement,taking cases such asState v. Nelson(1940) andTileston v. Ullman(1943). She supported the struggles to overturn birth control laws at the state level, working alongside movement activistMargaret Sanger.[1]

The early reproductive rights movement challenged anti-obscenityComstock laws.Pilpel was one of three attorneys who represented theKinsey Institutein a lawsuit against theUnited States Customs Service,after an Indianapolis customs collector deemed sex-related literature "grossly obscene" and began impounding the materials in 1950. Seven years later, in 1957, she won the case before the Federal District Court.[6]Pilpel was also versed inmatrimonial lawand co-authored the 1952 book entitledYour Marriage and the Lawwith Theodora Zavin. She also represented publishers and writers in cases involving copyright law. Her clients includedBetty Friedan,Mel Brooks,Billy Graham,Edna Ferber,Svetlana Alliluyeva,Jerome Kern,andErich Maria Remarque.[1]In 1965 she represented pediatricianBenjamin Spockin a case determining whether advertisements placed inThe Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Careviolated Dr. Spock's free speech rights.[2]

"Nowhere is the lag between the law on the books and the mores of the American people more obvious than in the field of the legal restrictions touching on birth control." — Harriet F. Pilpel, 1943[7]

Pilpel was involved with thepro-choice movement.In 1961, she argued on behalf ofPlanned ParenthoodinPoe v. Ullman,asking the Supreme Court to reverse a Connecticut law criminalizing birth control.[2][8]She wrote Planned Parenthood'samicus curiaebrief for that case as well as that for 1965'sGriswold v. Connecticut.Pilpel was influenced by ideas that the right to privacy upheld inGriswoldcould be extended to a woman's right toabortion.[1]She put abortion on the agenda of the ACLU Biennial Conference in 1964, though the board did not take up the issue until 1967.[9]AlongsideAryeh Neier,Pilpel helped organize the campaign against New York's anti-abortion law.[9]She authored Planned Parenthood'samicusbrief forRoe v. Wadeand strategized with attorneysSarah WeddingtonandLinda Coffee,organizingmoot courtpractices prior to arguments in the case.[1]Following the passage ofRoein 1973, she mentored lawyers who tried to prevent theexclusion of abortions from Medicaid.[5]

Pilpel helped to establish minors' rights to abortion and contraception. She presented a paper on the legal rights of minors to theInternational Council of Womenin 1973.[10]She argued in 1977'sCarey v. Population Services Internationalon behalf of a minor's right to acquire contraceptives without parental consent.[5]

During the 1960s, Pilpel served on thePresidential Commission on the Status of Womenunder the Kennedy and Johnson administrations.[2]Beginning in 1965, Pilpel was an advisor to theUnited States Women's Bureauof the United States Department of Labor.[2]She was chair of the Law Panel International of Planned Parenthood Federation from 1970 to 1978.[2]From 1979 to 1986, she served as general counsel for theAmerican Civil Liberties Union(ACLU).[2]She served on the boards of theGuttmacher Institute,the ACLU, andNARAL.[4]She was also co-chair of theNational Coalition Against Censorship.[11]In the 1950s and 1960s Pilpel also wrote a monthly column forPublishers Weeklyentitled "But Can You Do That?"[12]She appeared frequently onWilliam F. Buckley Jr.'s television showFiring Line.[2]

In 1982, she joined the law firmWeil, Gotshal & Manges.[2]That year, she donated her research files to Smith College'sSophia Smith Collection.[13]

Selected bibliography

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  • Pilpel, Harriet; Zavin, Theodora (1952).Your Marriage and the Law.Toronto: Rinehart.OCLC5773584.
  • ——; Zavin, Theodora (1960).Rights and Writers: A Handbook of Literary and Entertainment Law.New York: Dutton.OCLC1457829.
  • ——; Goldberg, Morton David (1960).A copyright guide.New York: R. R. Bowker Co.OCLC964807.
  • ——; Peyser, Minna Post (1965).Know Your Rights: What a working wife should know about her legal rights.
  • —— (June 1969)."The Right of Abortion".The Atlantic Monthly.

Personal life

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On June 15, 1933, she married social service executive Robert C. Pilpel.[4]In 1987, Pilpel was widowed.[14]She remarried, to New York Medical College administrator Irvin B. Schwartz on March 13, 1989.[15]She died of a heart attack on April 23, 1991, in Manhattan. She was 79.[2]

Her son, Robert Harry Pilpel, is an author.[16][17][18][19][20][21]

Honors

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Pilpel was honored with a fellowship inNYU Law's Hays Program, the Harriet Pilpel-Planned Parenthood Fellowship.[22]

Further reading

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References

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  1. ^abcdefUnti, Bernard (March 1, 2009)."Harriet Fleischl Pilpel".Jewish Women's Archive.
  2. ^abcdefghijkCook, Joan (April 24, 1991)."Harriet Pilpel, 79, Lawyer, Dies; An Advocate of Women's Rights".The New York Times.Archivedfrom the original on May 25, 2015.
  3. ^"Women at CLS: Harriet F. Pilpel '36".Columbia Law School.RetrievedFebruary 5,2013.
  4. ^abc"Finding Aid for the Harriet F. Pilpel Papers, 1913-1981".Five College Archives & Manuscript Collections.RetrievedFebruary 5,2013.
  5. ^abcdLaw, Sylvia A. (2004)."Pilpel, Harriet".Notable American Women.Cambridge, Mass. [u.a.]: Belknap Press of Harvard Univ. Press. pp. 518–519.ISBN978-0-674-01488-6.
  6. ^"Photo History: U.S. Customs Case".The Kinsey Institute.RetrievedFebruary 5,2013.
  7. ^Current Legal Thought: The Lawyers' Digest of Law Reviews, Volumes 9-10.Current Legal Thought, Inc. 1943.
  8. ^"Poe v. Ullman".The Oyez Project.RetrievedFebruary 5,2013.
  9. ^abWalker, Samuel (1999).In Defense of American Liberties, Second Edition: A History of the ACLU(2nd ed.). Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. pp. 301–302.ISBN978-0-8093-2270-1.
  10. ^MacDonald, Alix (August 8, 1973)."Women advocate a Govt Minister of Family".The Age.
  11. ^"PMRC, record industry meet".Reading Eagle.November 22, 1986.
  12. ^Alvarez, Walter C. (February 6, 1969)."U.S. Sex Laws Said Incredible".The Evening Independent.
  13. ^"Harriet F. Pilpel Papers, 1913-1981".Five College Archives and Manuscript Collections.RetrievedFebruary 5,2013.
  14. ^"Robert C. Pilpel".The New York Times.9 July 1987.Retrieved7 July2022.
  15. ^"Harriet Pilpel and Irvin Schwartz Wed".The New York Times.March 13, 1989.
  16. ^Roberts, John;Rosenman, Joel;Pilpel, Robert H.(1974).Young Men with Unlimited Capital: The Inside Story of the Legendary Woodstock Festival Told By The Two People Who Paid for It(1st ed.). New York:Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.ISBN9780151559770.OCLC922819.
  17. ^"author: Robert H. Pilpel".Harper's Magazine.Retrieved7 July2022.
  18. ^"Between Eternities by Robert H. Pilpel".Publishers Weekly.Retrieved7 July2022.
  19. ^Pilpel, Robert H;Brooks, Mel(1977).High Anxiety.New York:Ace Books.OCLC3594860.by Mel Brooks, Ron Clark, Rudy De Luca, Barry Levinson; novelization by Robert H. Pilpel.
  20. ^"Letters to the Editor".Stanford Magazine.1 May 2009.Retrieved7 July2022.Robert H. Pilpel, '63; White Plains, New York;
  21. ^"To The Honor Of The Fleet by Robert Pilpel".Kirkus Reviews.July 1, 1979.Retrieved7 July2022.An enormous, robust, but somewhat scatterbrained first novel about naval espionage prior to America's entrance into America's entrance into World War I.
  22. ^"The Arthur Garfield Hays Civil Liberties Program: Fellowships".New York University School of Law.RetrievedFebruary 5,2013.
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