Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California Berkeley Oral History Center University of California The Bancroft Library Berkeley, California Marshall Krause Marshall Krause: ACLU of Northern California Attorney and Civil Liberties Advocate Interviews conducted by Martin Meeker in 2017 and 2018 Copyright © 2018 by The Regents of the University of California Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California Berkeley ii Since 1954 the Oral History Center of the Bancroft Library, formerly the Regional Oral History Office, has been interviewing leading participants in or well-placed witnesses to major events in the development of Northern California, the West, and the nation. Oral History is a method of collecting historical information through tape-recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. The tape recording is transcribed, lightly edited for continuity and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewee. The corrected manuscript is bound with photographs and illustrative materials and placed in The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley, and in other research collections for scholarly use. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account, offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is reflective, partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ********************************* All uses of this manuscript are covered by a legal agreement between The Regents of the University of California and Marshall Krause dated July 18, 2018. The manuscript is thereby made available for research purposes. All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to The Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley. Excerpts up to 1000 words from this interview may be quoted for publication without seeking permission as long as the use is non-commercial and properly cited. Requests for permission to quote for publication should be addressed to The Bancroft Library, Head of Public Services, Mail Code 6000, University of California, Berkeley, 94720-6000, and should follow instructions available online at http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/libraries/bancroft-library/oral-history-center/rights It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Marshall Krause, “Marshall Krause: ACLU of Northern California Attorney and Civil Liberties Advocate,” conducted by Martin Meeker 2017-2018, Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 2018. Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California Berkeley iii Marshall Krause, in his home with one of Ron Boise’s Kama Sutra sculptures, 2018 Photograph courtesy of Martin Meeker Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California Berkeley iv Marshall Krause served as lead attorney for the ACLU of Northern California from 1960 through 1968 and subsequently served as an attorney in private practice where he continued to work civil liberties cases. Krause attended UCLA as an undergraduate and graduated from Boalt Hall, UC Berkeley School of Law after which he clerked for Judge William Denman and Justice Phil Gibson. In this oral history, Mr. Krause discusses: his upbringing and education, including his time at Boalt Hall; clerkships with Denman and Gibson and how those experiences influenced his progressive attitudes; his tenure as ACLU staff attorney, including many of the cases he worked; his experiences arguing several cases before the United States Supreme Court; his perspective of the San Francisco counterculture of the 1960s; and his professional and legal career after leaving ACLU in 1968, which included arguing additional cases before the US Supreme Court. Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California Berkeley v Table of Contents — Marshall Krause Interview 1: December 4, 2017 Hour 1 1 Early life in Santa Monica in the 1930s and 1940s — Father’s early trading post business and Santa Monica store called Krause’s Menswear — Influence of World War II during childhood — Family’s liberal Jewish practices — Work at the KCRW radio station while attending Santa Monica High School — Participation in the Jewish fraternity Sigma Alpha Mu at UCLA — Watching the McCarthy hearings — Experience with anti- Semitism while growing up — Strained relationship with parents —Decision to attend Berkeley Law School in 1954 — Growing interest in liberalism while clerking for Judge William Denman — Overview of some law school courses — Initial intention to work for a corporate law firm — Fascination with the Bay Area arts scene — More on working with Judge Denman from 1957-58 and his progressive influence: “I would say that he was the one who let me know that it was okay to be progressive, and I didn’t have to apologize about it” — Clerkship with the California Supreme Court’s Chief Justice Gibson Hour 22 22 Family life in San Francisco’s Richmond District — Impression of the ACLU’s goals when first joining the organization— The 1957 “Howl” trial and persecution of ‘obscenity’ in literature — On joining the ACLU: “I liked being a rebel, maybe that’s why I was attracted to the ACLU.” — Experience of getting arrested at a peaceful protest on May 13, 1960 in San Francisco City Hall: “And ooh, boy, that was a big eye opener, and that really radicalized me.” — Robert Meisenbach’s false charges and acquittal — ACLU’s Operation Correction film about the protest — Getting hired by the ACLU in 1960 Interview 2: December 14, 2017 Hour 1 33 Al Bendich’s philosophical approach to the Constitution — Serving under Ernie Besig — Relationship between the ACLU of Northern California and the national ACLU — Representatives on the Northern California board in the 60s —The Supreme Court and ACLU’s struggle to define ‘obscenity’ and free speech — Debate about obscenity with the leading member of Citizens for Decent Literature — Becoming a staff attorney for the ACLU with the recommendations of Al Bendich and Ernest Besig — Pressure and satisfaction from the work — San Francisco culture in 1960 — View of free speech and social justice in the contemporary political climate — Variations in obscenity laws across municipalities, vague statutes in San Francisco — Vorpal Gallery owner Muldoon Elder’s arrest for displaying Ron Boise’s Kama Sutra sculptures, subsequent acquittal and discussion of erotic art with a “redeeming social importance” — Political influence of Catholics in San Francisco’s conflict against obscenity during the 60s Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California Berkeley vi Hour 2 50 Case against the Parks and Recreation Commission for their denial of permits to Ron Davis’s San Francisco Mime Troupe — Actors in The Beard by Michael McClure performing despite knowing that they could potentially be charged with lewdness — Bringing probation officer James Forester’s case before Judge Karesh — ACLU’s defense of personal expression — Annual meetings of ACLU attorneys — Supreme Court’s progressiveness compared to more local courts — Supreme Court case over the arrest of a cigar store owner for selling suggestive images, ACLU’s defense on the principle of fighting against censorship — broad and subjective community standards Interview 3: January 25, 2018 Hour 1 63 Emergence of hippie counterculture in San Francisco during the 1960s — Lenore Kandel’s poem on sexuality in The Love Book — Obscenity charges against the Psychedelic Shop owner Ron Thelin and clerk Allen Cohen for selling the book — On the Supreme Court: “Their definition of obscenity was so broad and malleable that nobody knew exactly what it was, and it ended up being whatever the police didn’t like was obscenity.” — Trial on the sale of The Love Book, legal strategy to emphasize the book’s social importance — Kandel’s reading of the book to the Barrister’s Club — Catholic enforcement of community moral standards — Police chief’s preclusion of showing Un Chant d'Amour film by Jean Genet on the UC Berkeley campus, subsequent Landau versus Fording case — Compromise with US Attorney Cecil Poole about which nudist magazines were allowed — Losing the Jefferson Poland case about the Bracero Program for Mexican laborer’s rights Hour 2 80 1961 Louis Hartman case against the House Committee on Un-American Activities for suppressing free political speech — Protection of privacy in the Constitution — Involvement in student politics and activism at UC Berkeley — Case before the Academic Senate about a student’s F grade in ROTC for protesting in uniform — Network of volunteer lawyers for the ACLU of Northern California who defended people’s right to protest Interview 4: February 16, 2018 Hour 1 90 Lamont versus Postmaster General [1965] case before the Supreme Court: “It was the first time that an act of Congress had been declared unconstitutional because it violated the First Amendment” —Legal strategy to win cases as broadly as possible — Deciding factors for which ACLU state chapter and attorney is in charge of a case — Experience of arguing before the Supreme Court — Media hype around the Supreme Court’s decision on Lamont versus Postmaster General — Bill of attainder argument in amicus curiae Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California Berkeley vii brief about US versus Archie Brown