Frank Donner (lawyer)
Frank Donner (November 25, 1911 – June 10, 1993) was a civil liberties lawyer, author, and the director of the American Civil Liberties Union's (ACLU) Project on Political Surveillance, whose clients included Morton Sobell (fellow accused in the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg case) and William Albertson.
Early life and education
Born in
Career
Donner worked as a staff attorney for the
With attorneys
Donner, himself, was brought before the
In 1977, Donner filed for administrative damages for William Albertson's widow, which led to a lawsuit in 1984 that went to appeal and then the Supreme Court before the federal government settled out of court for $170,000.[7]
Beginning in 1970, Donner headed the Project on Political Surveillance for the ACLU. During that time he wrote several books outlining official use of domestic surveillance and the use of Red Squads, programs like COINTELPRO, and other agencies to infiltrate organizations suspected of political dissent. Donner was particularly interested in the “modern” version of these policing organization that were focused on groups such as Veterans Against the Vietnam War. Many of these policing organizations infiltrated and were the majority members of some of these groups.
Donner also cited the government's use of scapegoats to divert attention from government criticism onto other political groups.
Works
- (1961) The Un-Americans
- (1971) "Theory and Practice of American Political Intelligence", in The New York Review of Books
- (1980) The Age of Surveillance: The Aims & Methods of America's Political Intelligence System
- (1991) Protectors of Privilege: Red Squads and Political Repression in Urban America
See also
References
- ^ Lambert, Bruce (June 11, 1993), "Frank J. Donner Is Dead at 82; A Lawyer in Civil Liberties Cases", The New York Times, retrieved 2009-07-27
- ^ a b c Cohen, Michael; Hyry, Tom (September 30, 2023). "Guide to the Frank J. Donner Papers" (PDF). Yale University Library. Retrieved April 27, 2024.
- ^ Red Scare in Court, Arthur J. Sabin, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999, page 41-44
- ^ Transcript of one HUAC hearing https://archive.org/stream/investigationofc5609unit/investigationofc5609unit_djvu.txt
- ^ The Making of the National Labor Relations Board, James A. Gross, SUNY Press, 1974, page 324
- ^ Report by the House Committee on Un-American Activities, Feb. 16, 1959 https://archive.org/stream/communistlegalsu1959unit/communistlegalsu1959unit_djvu.txt
- ^
Greenberg, Ivan (14 October 2010). The Dangers of Dissent: The FBI and Civil Liberties since 1965. Lexington Books. p. 257. ISBN 9780739149393. Retrieved 12 April 2018.
External links
- The Theory and Practice of American Political Intelligence http://www.nybooks.com/articles/10584
- Government Intelligence Abuse: The Theories of Frank Donner http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/donner.html
- Frank Donner papers (MS 1706). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library.[1]