John Goldmark

John E. Goldmark (October 7, 1917 – October 31, 1979) was an American politician in the state of Washington. He served as a Democrat in the Washington House of Representatives between 1956 and 1962, during which time he was chair of the Ways and Means Committee.

In 1962, he brought a libel case against former legislator Albert F. Canwell and a number of other parties for a series of editorials written about him and his wife in local papers, alleging that they were sympathetic to the Communist Party. He won the case and was awarded $40,000 in damages, but the award was overturned following the Supreme Court's decision in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan.

Early life Goldmark was born on October 7, 1917, in Scarsdale, New York. He was the only child of Charles J. Goldmark, an electrical engineer of Austrian Jewish descent, and Ruth Ingersoll, an academic in English literature. He graduated from Haverford College, where he was first in his class, and from Harvard Law School in 1941, where he was a member of the law review.

Early career Goldmark intended to work in public service but when World War II began, he applied for a commission with the U.S. Navy and, in the interim, moved to Washington, D.C., to work at the Office of Price Administration in 1941. At the time of their courtship she had been a member of the American Communist Party since 1935, paying dues and attending study groups, but Goldmark was averse to the organization and she later stated that she resigned her membership in 1943, the year after they married. He was called up by the Navy during the summer of 1942 as an apprentice seaman, and went through officer training before being commissioned at the rank of ensign in December.

Goldmark had earned a pilot's license in 1949 and was known initially for flying his plane to the state capital in Olympia. He served a total of six years in the legislature, where he was actively involved with budget and tax issues and argued in favor of public electrical power. He supported the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), sponsoring a bill they drafted to protect due process and the right to free speech in trade unions in 1959, and became a member of their state committee. He also encouraged the creation of a state art commission. After leaving office, Canwell established the "American Intelligence Service", through which he maintained files on local figures he suspected of communism and published this information in his newsletter The Vigilante. He had been told in 1956 by an employee of HUAC that Ringe was a former member of the Communist Party. In January 1962, along with Holden, he published an article in his newsletter about a state legislator married to "Irma Mae Ringe", identified as a former communist who had studied with Victor Perlo, which alleged that her husband supported the Communist regime in China. Goldmark was not named, although some local people were aware of his wife's maiden name. During the event, state senator Hallauer went on stage, claiming the meeting was a personal attack on him and Goldmark. He was removed from the stage as, he later claimed, the crowd cheered for him to be thrown out. The John Birch Society was initially listed as a defendant on charges of conspiracy, but these were dismissed prior to the hearing in September 1963. Holden contended that the lawsuit was an "effort to scare the living daylights out of conservatives everywhere in the nation". The claimants called witnesses who included actor Sterling Hayden, writer Paul Jacobs, senator Harry P. Cain, state representative Slade Gorton and their elder son.

The trial lasted 43 days and ended with the defendants' attorneys arguing in their closing statement that there was not a conspiracy to defame Goldmark and they had simply been campaigning against an elected official. Each of the defendants was found guilty, with the most damages awarded against Holden for his editorial, although the jury did not rule that there had been a conspiracy.

The defendants appealed and on December 18, 1964, Turner overturned the judgment due to a ruling by the United States Supreme Court in March 1964. The court had held in the case of New York Times Co. v. Sullivan on March 9, 1964, that public officials could not claim damages for comments about any actions in relation to their official duties unless there was proof of malice. Turner said that while the case proved that the defendants had falsely claimed that Goldmark was a communist, it had not been proven that this was done maliciously. The defendants considered this a victory, with Canwell describing Ringe as a lesbian communist, but Goldmark chose not to appeal the decision and request a new trial as his concern was proving the charges were false, which had been accomplished.

Goldmark's wife Irma died in 1985, the same year that, on December 24, a stranger named David L. Rice broke into the house of their son Charles, chloroformed him, his wife Annie and their two sons and murdered them. Goldmark's second son Peter J. Goldmark was elected as the Washington State Commissioner of Public Lands in 2008.