Nathan Ross Margold

Nathan Ross Margold (1899 – December 17, 1947) was a Romanian-born American lawyer. He was a municipal judge in Washington, D.C., and the author of the 1933 Margold Report to promote civil rights for African-Americans through the courts. He was also a supporter of Native American civil rights and Native American sovereignty. In addition to his legal career, Margold is remembered as the father of adult film pioneer William Margold.

Early life Nathan Ross Margold was born in Iași, Romania in 1899, to Wolf Margulies and Rosa Kahan. He was brought to the United States aged two. Growing up in Brooklyn, he graduated from City College of New York in 1919. Margold then attended Harvard Law School. He became the editor of the school's Law Review. He was a "protégé" of Felix Frankfurter, who interested him in working for social reforms and workers rights. With John Collier, Margold wrote the solicitor's opinion, "Powers of Indian Tribes" which was issued October 25, 1934, and commented on the wording of the Indian Reorganization Act. According to Vine Deloria Jr. and Clifford M. Lytle, "Modern tribal sovereignty thus [began] with this opinion" because the opinion recognized that the sovereignty of Indian tribes was inherent, rather than being granted to them by the federal government.

In 1940, Margold wrote the introduction to the Handbook of Federal Indian Law by Felix S. Cohen. Margold believed that Indian self-governance was "a revealing record in the development of our American constitutional democracy."

Recognizing his loyalty and legal expertise, Franklin Delano Roosevelt appointed Margold as a judge on the Municipal Court for the District of Columbia in 1942 where he continued to serve until 1945.