In a vivid, thoughtfully enthusiastic critique, Langum (Law/Samford
Univ.; Crossing the Line: Legislating Morality and the Mann Act,
1994) outlines the life, loves, and legal struggles of the radical
lawyer who defended such diverse clients as the Chicago Seven, the
Attica prison insurgents, Jack Ruby, and John Gotti. Langum, a
libertarian though not a radical, admires Kunstler for "his
willingness to do battle against the government" at a time when the
author perceives an increasing threat to individual liberty from
the growing power of the federal government. However, Kunstler
emerges here as a protean figure whose personality and legal
philosophy defy easy classification. As Langum shows, commencing
with his representation of members of the civil rights movement in
the early 1960s, Kunstler identified with the New Left and indeed
often represented political radicals. Also, Kunstler would
frequently politicize the causes of his indigent and minority
clients, articulating ideological legal defenses intended more to
expose the hollowness of the judicial system and to point up
societal issues like racism than to obtain acquittal for his
clients. Still, as Langum shows, Kunstler carried on a conventional
law practice for many years and represented many nonideological
clients, including mob figures, and despite his radical contempt
for judges, colleagues, and the conventions of the bar and bench,
usually conducted himself in the courtroom with exemplary
professionalism and decorum. Langum sketches Kunstler's complex,
appealing personality and details his love of writing, his two
marriages, and his womanizing habits. Langum also analyzes several
of Kunstler's important trials and describes his sometimes
off-the-cuff trial preparation and technique, his prodigious work
ethic, and the effect of his affable personality and outsized ego
on clients, judges, and adversaries. While conceding that Kunstler
was no saint, Langum concludes that, to combat the growing
despotism of the federal government, "thousands of Kunstlers are
needed." An absorbing, reflective narrative of the life and
crusades of America's quintessential "people's lawyer." (Kirkus
Reviews)
The true story of the defender of the Chicago 7 Alternately
vilified as a publicity-seeking egoist and lauded as a
rambunctious, fearless advocate, William Kunstler consistently
embodied both of these qualities. Kunstler's unrelenting, radical
critique of American racism and the legal system took shape as a
result of his efforts to enlist the federal judicial system to
support the civil rights movement. In the late 60s and the 70s,
Kunstler, refocusing his attention on the Black Power and anti-war
movement, garnered considerable public attention as defender of the
Chicago Seven, and went on to represent such controversial figures
as Leonard Peltier, the American Indian Movement leader charged
with killing an FBI agent, and Jack Ruby, the killer of Lee Harvey
Oswald. Later, Kunstler briefly represented Colin Ferguson, the
Long Island Railroad mass murderer, outraging fans and detractors
alike with his invocation of the infamous "black rage" defense.
Defending those most loathed by mainstream, conventional America,
William Kunstler delighted in taking on fiercely political cases,
usually representing society's outcasts and pariahs free of charge
and often achieving remarkable courtroom results in seemingly
hopeless cases. Though Kunstler never gave up his revolutionary
underpinnings, he gradually turned from defending clients whose
political beliefs he personally supported to taking on apolitical
clients, falling back on the broad rationale that his was a general
struggle against an oppressive government. What ideological and
tactical motives explain Kunstler's obsessive craving for media
attention, his rhetorical flourishes in the courtroom and his
instinctive and relentless drive for action? How did Kunstler
migrate from a comfortable middle-class background to a life as a
staunchly rebellious figure in social and legal history? David
Langum's portrait gives depth to the already notorious breadth of
William Kunstler's life.
General
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