David I. Shapiro
The lawyer who defended free speech
David I. Shapiro
1928–2009
David I. Shapiro won renown for defending both suspected communists and avowed Nazis, saying he found limits on the free expression of ideas “more distasteful” than even the ugliest points of view.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Shapiro received his law degree from Brooklyn College and was an early opponent of McCarthy-era witch hunts, said the London Times. He represented Kendrick Cole, who was suspended from his Food and Drug Administration job because he was deemed a security risk. Later, Shapiro successfully represented broker Harold Silver, whose business had suffered when the New York Stock Exchange ordered its members to stop doing business with him because his “loyalty” had been questioned. In 1960, the ACLU asked him to defend the right of George Lincoln Rockwell’s Nazi Party to distribute anti-Semitic literature. “Despite his initial misgivings (‘My middle name’s Israel. I’m not going to represent this sonofabitch,’ he said), he secured an acquittal, only to face anti-Semitic taunts from his own client.”
Shapiro also defended, un-successfully, Watergate figure Charles Colson, who was a member of his own law firm in Washington, D.C., said The Washington Post. By that time, Shapiro was on his way to becoming “a leading figure in class-action suits,” having won $120 million for clients in a drug price-fixing case. He would later help settle the claims of silicone breast-implant victims and Vietnam vets who said they had been sickened by the herbicide Agent Orange. A “boisterous, brawling” 6-footer, Shapiro specialized in “out-yelling and outmaneuvering legal adversaries.” When giving advice to young lawyers, he would tell them “to press the outrage button.”
He is survived by his third wife and five children.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
August 2 editorial cartoons
Cartoons Saturday’s political cartoons include a tariff self-own, rough times at the Trump golf course, and more
-
5 inexcusably hilarious cartoons about Ghislaine Maxwell angling for a pardon
Cartoons Artists take on the circle of life, Ghislaine's Island, and more
-
Ozzy Osbourne obituary: heavy metal wildman and lovable reality TV dad
In the Spotlight For Osbourne, metal was 'not the music of hell but rather the music of Earth, not a fantasy but a survival guide'
-
Peter O’Toole, 1932–2013
feature The actor who portrayed Lawrence of Arabia
-
Jacques Vergès, 1925–2013
feature The lawyer who defended the indefensible
-
James L. Tolbert, 1926–2013
feature The Hollywood lawyer who fought for civil rights
-
Ronald Dworkin, 1931–2013
feature The legal scholar who based law in morality
-
Lawrence Anthony, 1950–2012
feature The man who saved the Baghdad zoo
-
Lawrence Eagleburger, 1930–2011
feature The career diplomat beloved for bluntness
-
Sargent Shriver, 1915–2011
feature The Kennedy in-law who battled poverty
-
James Neal, 1929–2010
feature The lawyer who convicted the president’s men