Joseph L. Rauh, Jr.

Joseph Louis Rauh Jr. (January 3, 1911 – September 3, 1992) was one of the United States' foremost civil rights and civil liberties lawyers. In his early career, he served as a lawyer in the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration and a clerk to Supreme Court justices Benjamin N. Cardozo and Felix Frankfurter. He co-founded the liberal organization Americans for Democratic Action, and was a key lobbyist for civil rights legislation from the 1940s to 1960s.

He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, by President Bill Clinton on November 30, 1993.

Background Rauh was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Jewish parents. His mother, Sarah, was born in the United States. His father who manufactured shirts, was born in Bamberg, Bavaria, Germany. He shirked the textiles business for Harvard University where his older brother had gone to school. His older sister Louise W. Rauh became a physician. In Harvard, he played center for the Ivy League school's basketball team. He graduated magna cum laude with a degree in economics in 1932, continuing his education at Harvard Law School, where he finished first of his class. after working as the Deputy Counsel for both the Lend-Lease Administration and the Office of Emergency Management,

On September 12, 1948 (a Sunday) at 8:30 PM, Elizabeth Bentley appeared again on the first-ever television broadcast via WNBT of NBC's Meet the Press and was the first interviewed. Journalists included: Nelson Frank, Inez Robb, Cecil Brown, and Lawrence Spivak. Cecil Brown asked her three times whether she would accuse William Remington of being a communist outside of congressional protection, she finally did so. Rauh defended Remington before a Truman Loyalty Review Board.

In 1959, Rauh successfully represented Quaker printer David H. Scull before the US Supreme Court in Scull v. Virginia ex rel. Committee on Law Reform & Racial Activities, which concerned aggressive and unclear questioning by the pro-segregation chairman of a Virginia legislative committee, which had led to a contempt citation the Supreme Court overturned.

Rauh also lobbied Congress for the passage of many civil rights bills, having a hand in the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Civil Rights Act of 1968. In addition, he fought against McCarthyism and was a long-time executive board member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Personal life Rauh died in 1992 and was survived by his wife of 57 years, the former Olie Westheimer, and two sons, B. Michael Rauh and Carl S. Rauh and three grandchildren. His other son, B Michael Rauh, was also a distinguished litigant in Washington, D.C., is the University of the District of Columbia School of Law Foundation Chair, the organization that hosts the annual Joseph L. Rauh Lectures.

Awards In 1993 he was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Bill Clinton. In 1983 he received the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Awards for the freedom of speech.