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Sep 23, 2025
Editor: I’m old enough to recall another time and place in America, and its celebrated lawyer Louis Nizer! His New York Time obituary of Nov. 11, 1994 is revelatory. I provide a sample of Eric Pace’s obituary!
Louis Nizer, Lawyer to the Famous, Dies at 92
By Eric Pace
Nov. 11, 1994
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He was born in London on Feb. 6, 1902, and brought to the United States as a child. Early in his life, as the son of the owner of a Brooklyn dry-cleaning establishment, he made his voice and name heard in his noisy new hometown. As a youth, he won a Government citation for his patriotic speeches during Liberty Loan drives in World War I. Fresh out of Columbia College, he twice won the Curtis Oratorical Prize at Columbia Law School, from which he graduated in 1924.
As a fledgling lawyer in 1925, he talked his way into the newspapers when he championed the interests of a group of Brooklyn merchants. It was in 1926 that he and Mr. Phillips set up a law partnership, which grew into the prestigious firm of Phillips, Nizer, Benjamin, Krim & Ballon.
A combination of qualities brought Mr. Nizer his vast success. He was exuberantly competitive: “I enjoy the clash of ideas,” he once said. On trans-Atlantic voyages in the 1930’s, for lack of other realms to conquer, he passed the time winning shipboard table tennis tournaments.
He strongly identified with his clients’ interests. He once wrote what he called “A Lawyer’s Prayer,” which began: “I would pray, O Lord, never to diminish my passion for a client’s cause, for from it springs the flame which leaps across the jury box and sets fire to the conviction of the jurors.”
He was a master at preparing and presenting legal arguments. He cut an earnest and authoritative figure, presenting arguments that were not memorized outright, but planned meticulously, during long hours at his office.
Much of what he spoke or wrote was garnished with sweeping declarations that would resound pleasingly in a high-ceilinged courtroom, even if they were actually composed, say, for a modest book review.
“Nowhere is the cupidity and nobility of man better demonstrated than in the judicial arena” was the sort of thing he was apt to say.
Mr. Nizer was also a master at bons mots about people. Presenting Sara Delano Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s mother, at a banquet, he said: “A beautiful young lady is an act of nature. A beautiful old lady is a work of art. I introduce you to a work of art.”
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Editor: That Hillery Clinton is given to lying, to cover herself in an imagined political virtue, is indicative of her self-agradisemet. That anchors her toxic egoism, that flutiates as need arises!
Free Speech, PoliticsSeptember 20, 2025
Charlotte Bronte once wrote “I believe that creature is a changeling: she is a perfect cabinet of oddities.” No quote better captured the chilling curiosity that is Hillary Clinton. This week, Clinton (without any sign of shame or self-awareness) attacked others for seeking censorship and blacklisting political opponents through government and corporate collaboration. Clinton is one of the most anti-free speech figures in the United States and actively campaigned for the censorship of opponents. Today, my column in the Hill discusses the hypocrisy of many on the left this week after the suspension of late-night host Jimmy Kimmel. However, there is simply no one in the same class as Clinton in hitting hypocrisy’s rock bottom.
This week, Clinton declared: “I think this is a very clear example of using the power of the state to suppress speech. It is a direct government action to try to intimidate employers, organizations, corporations, much of which we’ve already seen, to remove an opponent, even though it’s a comic.”
For many in the free speech community, the statement led us to spit out our morning coffee.
Clinton and her allies have long shown contempt for the intelligence of the voters, often denying facts or flipping positions while denying any inconsistencies. It was a record that produced not only polling as one of the least popular American politicians but also record lows in the public’s view of trustworthiness and authenticity. Clinton’s campaign routinely lied about major issues, including denying to the media that it funded the infamous Steele dossier.
For the record, I have repeatedly criticized Administration statements from recently on free speech and some of the actions taken against critics as threatening to our core values of free speech. This has included threats to prosecute hate speech and flag burning despite countervailing precedent. However, the last person any of us in the free speech community wants to see in this fight is Hillary Clinton.
As I have previously written, Clinton heralded the growing anti-free speech movement and noted that “there are people who are championing it, but it’s been a long and difficult road to getting anything done.”
In my book, I discuss the challenge for anti-free speech champions like Clinton is that it is not easy to convince a free people to give up their freedom.
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Mr. Turley as wan ‘Political Centrist’ enlivens his essay with Joseph Welch’s question to Joe McCarthy!
Mr. Turley unsurprising moralizing chatter:
There has to be some lingering residue of shame left; some modicum of decency in refraining from such raw hypocrisy at these moments. Yet, we seem to be living in an era of post-shame politics. The only thing missing is lawyer Joseph Welch.
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