Oral History Project United States Courts The Historical Society of the District of Columbia Circuit District of Columbia Circuit DAVID CARLINER, ESQUIRE Interviews conducted by: Charles Reischel, Esquire August 12, October 16, December 1 1, 1997 and March 13, 1998 TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface ..................................................................... i Oral History Agreements ... David Carliner, Esquire. ................................................... 111 Charles Reischel, Esquire .................................................... v Oral History Transcript of Interviews on: August12,1997 ............................................................ 1 October16,1997 .......................................................... 39 Decemberll,l997 ........................................................ 72 March13,1998 .......................................................... 117 Index ..................................................................... AI Tableofcases .............................................................. B1 Biographical Sketches David Carliner, Esquire .................................................... C1 Charles Reischel, Esquire .................................................. C3 NOTE The following pages record interviews conducted on the dates indicated. The interviews were electronically recorded, and the transcription was subsequently reviewed and edited by the interviewee. The contents hereof and all literary rights pertaining hereto are governed by, and are subject to, the Oral History Agreements included herewith. 0 1998 Historical Society of the District of Columbia Circuit. All rights reserved. PREFACE The goal of the Oral History Project of the Historical Society of the District of Columbia Circuit is to preserve the recollections of the judges who sat on the US. Courts of the District of Columbia Circuit, and judges' spouses, lawyers and court staff who played important roles in the history of the Circuit. The Project began in 1991. Most interviews were conducted by volunteers who are members of the Bar of the District of Columbia. Copies of the transcripts of these and additional documents as available - some of which may have been prepared in conjunction with the oral history - are housed in the Judges' Library in the E. Barrett Prettyman United States Courthouse, 333 Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. Inquiries may be made of the Circuit Librarian as to whether the transcripts are available at other locations. Such original audio tapes of the interviews as exist, as well as the original 3.5" diskettes of the transcripts (in WordPerfect format) are in the custody of the Circuit Executive of the U.S. Courts for the District of Columbia Circuit. -1- INTERVIEWEE ORAL HISTORY AGREEMENT Historical Societv of the District of Columbia Circuit Oral History Aaeement of David Carliner I. In consideration of the recording and preservation of my oral history memoir by the Historical Society of the District of Columbia Circuit, Washington, D.C., and its employees and agents (hereinafter “the Society”), I, David Carliner, do hereby grant and convey to the Society and its successors and assigns all of my rights, title, and interest in the tape recordings, transcripts and computer diskette of my interviews as described in Schedule A hereto, including literary rights and copyrights. All copies of the tapes, transcripts and diskette are subject to the same restrictions herein provided. 2. I also reserve for myself and to the executor of my estate the right to use the tapes, transcripts and diskette and their content as a resource for any book, pamphlet, article or other writing of which I or my executor may be the author or co-author. 3. I authorize the Society to duplicate, edit, publish, including publication on the internet, or permit the use of said tape recordings, transcripts and diskette in any manner that the Society considers appropriate, and I waive any claims I may have or acquire to any royalties from such use. I [’ David Carliner Date CLl%u-- SWORN TO AND SUBSCRIBED before me this .c __ day of ,200-. I : %hLh GLL \ 12 - 17- c\.> Notary Public My Commission expires ACCEPTED this $$ day of ,2003, by Stephen J. Pollak, President of the Historical Society of the __ ... -111- Schedule A Tape recording(s) and transcript(s) resulting from 4interviews of (Number) David Carliner on the following dates: (Interviewee) Pages of Date (Month, Dav. Year) & Title Number of Tapes Transcript August 12,1997 2 46 October 16, 1997 1 38 December 1 1, 1997 1 56 March 13, 1998 1 48 The transcripts of the 4 interviews are contained on 1diskette. -iv- Historical Societv of the District of Columbia Circuit Agreement Respecting Oral History of David Carliner 1. Charles Reischel, having agreed to conduct an interview with David Carliner for the Historical Society of the District of Washington, D.C., and its employees and agents (hereinafter "the Society"), I, representative of the estate of Charles Reischel, do hereby grant and convey to the Society and its successors and assigns, all of my right, title, and interest in the tape recordings, transcripts and computer diskette of interviews, as described in Schedule A hereto, including literary rights and copyrights. 2. I authorize the Society, to duplicate, edit, publish, including publication on the internet, or permit the use of said tape recordings, transcripts and diskette in any manner that the Society considers appropriate, and I waive any claims I may have or acquire to any royalties from such use. 3. I agree that I will make no use of the interview or the information contained therein until it is concluded and edited, or until I receive permission from the Society. SWORN TO AVD SUBSCRIBED before me this 6a &day of ,2003. v Notary Public \ ACCEPTED this day of pka&& ,2002, by Stephen J. Pollak, President of the Historical Society of the District of Columbia Circuit. n -V- Schedule A Tape recording(s) and transcript(s) resulting from 4interviews of (Number) David Carliner on the following dates: (Interviewee) Pages of Date (Month, Day, Year) & Title Number of Tapes Transcript August 12,1997 2 46 October 16, 1997 1 38 December 11, 1997 1 56 March 13,1998 1 48 The transcripts of the 4 interviews are contained on 1diskette. -vi- ORAL HISTORY OF DAVID CARLINER INTERVIEW NO. 1 August 12, 1997 This interview is being conducted on behalf of the Oral History Project of the District of Columbia Circuit. The interviewee is David Carliner and the interviewer is Charles Reischel. The interview took place on August 27, 1997. Mr. Reischel: I thought I’d start at the beginning with the fact that you are a local product. You were born here. Mr. Carliner: Washington, D.C., Sibley Hospital when it was on North Capitol Street. I tell people I woke up and I came out of my mother’s stomach and looked at the Capitol and screamed. Mr. Reischel: But you moved to Virginia at some point. Mr. Carliner: Well, not really. My father was in the grocery business and his style of business was to buy a grocery store and buy the real estate and stay in the grocery store for a couple of years and then sell the business and keep the real estate. So his income was built up by moving around owning different pieces of property which he rented and sold. My family lived in a number of different places in Washington, but it wasn’t until I was in my last year of high school, when I was about 16 years old, that my family moved to Arlington, Virginia. Mr. Reischel: So you went to D.C. schools? Mr. Carliner: I went to D.C. schools. I went to McKinley High School. This is not part of my legal history, but McKinley High School was my neighborhood school. My family lived on Bladensburg Road near South Dakota Avenue, so when I was going to McKinley High School – it being a vocational school in the neighborhood – I could take any courses that I 1 wanted. I was not destined to be a carpenter, a cabinetmaker or tinkerer; I took academic courses. In my last year of high school my family moved to Arlington, Virginia, in Clarendon, until the school told me I was no longer in the neighborhood and that if I wanted to continue to go to McKinley I had to take a vocational course. So like any red-blooded American boy I said, “I want to take automobile repair shop.” They said, “No, you can’t take that unless you take iron forge and eight other courses.” Mr. Reischel: They had prerequisites to automobile repair? Mr. Carliner: Yes, for automobile repair. They would have to let me stay in high school for four more years to take automobile repair shop. I didn’t want to do that. So I asked if I could I take some other vocational course. They said, “Yes, which one?” I said, “What about cooking?” They said, “Yes, you can take cooking if you can get three other guys to sit around the kitchen stove with you.” So I got three other guys. The four of us sat around the kitchen stove and I was able to take cooking in high school. I was the first class at McKinley of boys that ever took cooking. It came to be very useful, as a matter of fact, because I learned how to read recipes, and I know how to cook. It was fortunate that when my wife died several years ago that I was able to do my own cooking. I didn’t do much cooking when she was living. Mr. Reischel: The four of you were the only guys in the cooking class? Mr. Carliner: They didn’t want to have a boy sitting next to girls around a kitchen stove. They weren’t quite that integrated. Anyway, the point of this is I didn’t move into Virginia, but my family did when I was 16 years old and then subsequently I finished school in Washington. At one stage my family moved out to Silver Spring, but I was no longer really living with them. I was going to college at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, but my 2 domicile was Silver Spring, off Dale Drive.