The political courage and integrity of June 9, 1954, resonates today
(snip)
On June 9, 1954, attorney Joseph N. Welch was representing the U.S. Army, a pro bono client, before a Senate committee investigating alleged Communist influence in everything from Hollywood to the military. The hearings, chaired by Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-WI), had not gone well for the senator. During weeks of testimony, Welch on behalf of his clients refused to concede an inch to McCarthy’s unfounded and increasingly extreme claims. The erudite and witty Welch blunted every attack by McCarthy, leaving the senator increasingly agitated.
In desperation, McCarthy focused his vitriol on Frederick G. Fisher, a young associate in Welch’s Boston law firm, Hale and Dorr. Fisher, a Harvard Law School graduate, had been assigned by the firm to assist Welch in the hearings. In preparing Fisher for the task, however, Welch learned of the young attorney’s brief membership in the National Lawyers Guild, a liberal group that had represented many of McCarthy’s most famous victims. Welch recognized Fisher’s vulnerability with the ruthless McCarthy and replaced him on the team. That didn’t stop McCarthy who, having failed to land attacks against Welch and his client, went after Fisher.
Welch would have none of it:
“Until this moment, Senator, I think I have never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness. Fred Fisher is a young man who went to the Harvard Law School and came into my firm and is starting what looks to be a brilliant career with us.… Little did I dream you could be so reckless and so cruel as to do an injury to that lad. It is true he is still with Hale and Dorr. It is true that he will continue to be with Hale and Dorr. It is, I regret to say, equally true that I fear he shall always bear a scar needlessly inflicted by you. If it were in my power to forgive you for your reckless cruelty I would do so. I like to think I am a gentle man but your forgiveness will have to come from someone other than me.”
When McCarthy again tried to attack Fisher, Welch interrupted and spoke the line that should forever mark June 9 as a day to celebrate public courage and integrity:
“Senator, may we not drop this? We know he belonged to the Lawyers Guild.… Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator. You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?
Welch’s defense of “the young lad” (who went on to have a distinguished career, including a term as president of the Massachusetts Bar Association) and his pithy and pointed questioning of McCarthy’s lack of decency marked the beginning of the end to McCarthy’s reign of terror. Welch’s law firm, Hale and Dorr today is known as WilmerHale. Just as McCarthy went after the National Lawyers Guild for defending the Hollywood Ten and others who were dragged through lies and attacks by the senator, Trump targeted WilmerHale for hiring Special Counsel Robert Mueller and some top aides after they finished their investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
So far, nine prominent law firms have capitulated and struck deals with the Trump Administration. WilmerHale is one of four to take Trump and team to court. Joseph Welch would be proud.
https://minneapolistimes.com/have-you-no-decency-sir-an-anniversary-with-ties-and-meaning-today/
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