Morris L. Ernst, First Amendment and Reproductive Rights Pioneer, is Born
Morris L. Ernst, a pioneering civil liberties lawyer in the areas of free speech, reproductive rights, and privacy, was born on this day.
Ernst was a relentless opponent of censorship and is famous for handling the case that ended the U.S. Customs ban on James Joyce’s famous novel Ulysses (December 6, 1933).
He was also the first attorney to fight for reproductive rights. In 1943, for example, he unsuccessfully challenged the Connecticut ban on birth control information and devices, in Tileston v. Ullman (February 1, 1943). A later challenge to the law (in which he was not involved), Griswold v. Connecticut (June 7, 1965), overturned the law and established a constitutional right to privacy.
Ernst wrote a number of books on censorship, privacy, and other civil liberties issues that were addressed to the general public. These books had a significant impact on public opinion in the middle of the twentieth century. His books from the 1920s and 1930s are still valuable resources on the state of censorship in those years.
Ernst also served as co-General Counsel of the ACLU, with Arthur Garfield Hays, from 1924 through the 1950s.
Ernst became a controversial figure within the ACLU when in the 1970s it was revealed that he had for years maintained a friendly relationship with J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the FBI. He passed on to the FBI information about ACLU activities, and in several ways worked hard to temper ACLU criticisms of the Bureau.
Ernst’s books: To the Pure: A Study of Obscenity and the Censor (with William Seagle, 1928); The Censor Marches On (with Alexander Lindey, 1940); The First Freedom (1946); Privacy: The Right to be Let Alone (with Alan U. Schwartz, 1962)
Visit the Guide to the Morris L. Ernst Banned Book Collection here.
Learn more about Ernst’s pioneering role in challenging censorship: Leigh Ann Wheeler, How Sex Became a Civil Liberty (2013)
And more about Ernst’s important role on censorship in the 1920s and 1930s: Laura Weinrib, The Taming of Free Speech (2016)