Civil liberties cases of the 1970s

Before the Christic Institute, Danny spent the early 1970s on First Amendment, criminal defense and civil-rights work in New York, Boston and the Rocky Mountain states, from the Panther 21 trial to Watergate and Wounded Knee.

New York, 1970 to 1972

Out of Harvard Law School, Danny joined Cahill, Gordon, Sonnett, Reindel & Ohl as an associate First Amendment counsel. Alongside the Pentagon Papers case, his CV lists these matters from those years:

Panther 21 trial (State v. Byrd). Pro bono associate trial counsel for leaders of the New York Black Panther Party charged in a bombing conspiracy case. In May 1971 the jury acquitted every defendant on every charge.
Attica. Legal counsel to inmates after the September 1971 uprising, helping secure a committee of observers inside the prison. Medical examiners later found that the hostages who died were killed by law enforcement gunfire during the retaking, not by inmates.
The Tombs. Appointed by Mayor John Lindsay as pro bono counsel for inmates at the Manhattan House of Detention.
Eisenstadt v. Baird (1972). Worked on the case with Massachusetts Planned Parenthood. The Supreme Court struck down the state’s ban on contraception for unmarried people, and Roe v. Wade later cited the decision.
In re Pappas (1972). Filed the initial Massachusetts case and worked on the Supreme Court briefs in the reporters’ privilege cases decided together as Branzburg v. Hayes.
Knapp Commission. Served under William vanden Heuvel as special counsel in oversight of the Knapp Commission’s investigation of New York police corruption, which featured the testimony of Officer Frank Serpico.
Defense of activists. Counsel for peace and political activists including Dick Gregory and Dr. Benjamin Spock, and for the Berrigan brothers, Catholic priests prosecuted over Vietnam War protests.

Watergate and Boston, 1972 to 1973

Danny joined the Boston firm of Bailey, Alch & Gillis as special trial counsel. With F. Lee Bailey he served as special counsel in the Watergate burglary case, United States v. McCord. Burglar James McCord’s 1973 letter to Judge John Sirica, saying the defendants had been pressured to stay silent, helped break the cover-up open.

The Rocky Mountain states, 1974

As chief trial counsel for the ACLU’s national office for the Rocky Mountain states, Danny took on First Amendment and Native American rights cases:

Wounded Knee. Amicus curiae counsel for the ACLU’s Native American Rights Committee in the eight-month trial of American Indian Movement leaders after the 1973 occupation. Judge Fred Nichol dismissed the case in 1974 for government misconduct.
Slaughterhouse-Five. Brought the federal complaint after a school board in Drake, North Dakota banned and burned Kurt Vonnegut’s novel and fired the teacher who assigned it.
Last Tango in Paris. Defended the United Artists film against obscenity charges brought by the State of Idaho.
Morton v. Mancari (1974). Wrote ACLU briefs in the Supreme Court case that upheld the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ hiring preference for Native Americans.

Washington, 1975 to 1985

In 1975 Danny became counsel to the U.S. Jesuit Order’s National Office of Social Ministries in Washington, D.C., where he worked until 1985. In those years he took on the Karen Silkwood case, and in 1980 he co-founded the Christic Institute.

Watch Danny’s lectures on this case

Introductory lecture: law school stories (April 3, 2012)
The Black Panther cases and the Attica prison riot (April 5, 2012)
Eisenstadt v. Baird (April 10, 2012)
Roe v. Wade (April 12, 2012)
The New Bedford riots and confidential news sources (April 17, 2012)
The Watergate burglary (April 24, 2012)
The Watergate hearings (April 26, 2012)

From his UCSC lecture series. All lectures.