{{Short description|American attorney and women's rights activist}} {{Infobox person | name = Harriet Pilpel | image = Harriet Fleischl Pilpel.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = Harriet Fleischl | birth_date = December 2, 1911 | birth_place = The Bronx, New York | death_date = {{death date and age|1991|04|23|1911|12|02}} | death_place = Manhattan, New York | alma_mater = Vassar College<br>Columbia University<br>Columbia Law School | occupation = Attorney | years_active = | employer = | organization = | known_for = | movement = | spouse = Robert C. Pilpel (1933–1987)<br>Irvin B. Schwartz (1989–1991) | children = Judith Ethel,<br>Robert Harry | awards = }}
'''Harriet Fleischl Pilpel''' (December 2, 1911 – April 23, 1991) was an American attorney and women's rights activist. She wrote and lectured extensively regarding the freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and reproductive freedom. Pilpel served as general counsel for both the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood. During her career, she participated in 27 cases that came before the United States Supreme Court. Pilpel was involved in the birth control movement and the pro-choice movement. She helped to establish the legal rights of minors to abortion and contraception.
==Biography==
===Early life and education=== Harriet Fleischl was born on December 2, 1911, to Julius and Ethel (''née'' Loewy) Fleischl in the Bronx.<ref name="JWA">{{cite web|last=Unti|first=Bernard|title=Harriet Fleischl Pilpel|url=http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/pilpel-harriet-fleischl|publisher=Jewish Women's Archive|date=March 1, 2009}}</ref> She had two younger sisters, Juliette and Ruth.<ref name="NYT"/>
She graduated from Vassar College in 1932. In 1933 she received her master's degree in public law and international law from the Columbia University. She received her J.D. in 1936 from Columbia Law School, where she graduated second in her class.<ref name="NYT"/><ref>{{cite web|title=Women at CLS: Harriet F. Pilpel '36|url=http://www.law.columbia.edu/law_school/communications/reports/Fall2002/portraits11_22|publisher=Columbia Law School|access-date=February 5, 2013|archive-date=December 22, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121222083211/https://www.law.columbia.edu/law_school/communications/reports/Fall2002/portraits11_22|url-status=dead}}</ref> She was hired by law firm Greenbaum, Wolf & Ernst following her graduation.<ref name="JWA"/>
===Legal career=== During her career, Pilpel played a role in 27 cases that were heard by the Supreme Court of the United States.<ref name="Asteria"/> Her scholarly work was often cited by the Court and in legislative debate.<ref name="NAW">{{cite book|last=Law|first=Sylvia A.|title=Notable American Women|year=2004|publisher=Belknap Press of Harvard Univ. Press|location=Cambridge, Mass. [u.a.]|isbn=978-0-674-01488-6|pages=518–519|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WSaMu4F06AQC&dq=harriet%20pilpel&pg=PA519|chapter=Pilpel, Harriet}}</ref> Law professor Sylvia A. Law writes that Pilpel "was a brilliant legal tactician with a deep knowledge of the nuance of doctrine, but she was also acutely attuned to political opinion, organizational politics, the press, religious feeling, and the broad cultural forces that shape constitutional principles."<ref name="NAW"/>
Pilpel was a protégé of Morris Ernst, who co-founded the ACLU. Through her work with Greenbaum, Wolf & Ernst, Pilpel was involved with the birth control movement, taking cases such as ''State v. Nelson'' (1940) and ''Tileston v. Ullman'' (1943). She supported the struggles to overturn birth control laws at the state level, working alongside movement activist Margaret Sanger.<ref name="JWA"/>
The early reproductive rights movement challenged anti-obscenity Comstock laws. Pilpel was one of three attorneys who represented the Kinsey Institute in a lawsuit against the United States Customs Service, after an Indianapolis customs collector deemed sex-related literature "grossly obscene" and began impounding the materials in 1950. Seven years later, in 1957, she won the case before the Federal District Court.<ref>{{cite web|title=Photo History: U.S. Customs Case|url=http://www.kinseyinstitute.org/about/photo-tour.html|publisher=The Kinsey Institute|access-date=February 5, 2013|archive-date=January 28, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130128071302/http://www.kinseyinstitute.org/about/photo-tour.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> Pilpel was also versed in matrimonial law and co-authored the 1952 book entitled ''Your Marriage and the Law'' with Theodora Zavin. She also represented publishers and writers in cases involving copyright law. Her clients included Betty Friedan, Mel Brooks, Billy Graham, Edna Ferber, Svetlana Alliluyeva, Jerome Kern, and Erich Maria Remarque.<ref name="JWA"/> In 1965 she represented pediatrician Benjamin Spock in a case determining whether advertisements placed in ''The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care'' violated Dr. Spock's free speech rights.<ref name="NYT"/> {| class="toccolours" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 2em; font-size: 85%; background:#c6dbf7; color:black; width:30em; max-width: 40%;" cellspacing="5" | style="text-align: left;" |"Nowhere is the lag between the law on the books and the mores of the American people more obvious than in the field of the legal restrictions touching on birth control." — Harriet F. Pilpel, 1943<ref>{{cite book|title=Current Legal Thought: The Lawyers' Digest of Law Reviews, Volumes 9-10|year=1943|publisher=Current Legal Thought, Inc.}}</ref> |} Pilpel was involved with the pro-choice movement. In 1961, she argued on behalf of Planned Parenthood in ''Poe v. Ullman'', asking the Supreme Court to reverse a Connecticut law criminalizing birth control.<ref name="NYT"/><ref>{{cite web|title=Poe v. Ullman|url=https://www.oyez.org/cases/1960-1969/1960/1960_60|publisher=The Oyez Project|access-date=February 5, 2013}}</ref> She wrote Planned Parenthood's ''amicus curiae'' brief for that case as well as that for 1965's ''Griswold v. Connecticut''. Pilpel was influenced by ideas that the right to privacy upheld in ''Griswold'' could be extended to a woman's right to abortion.<ref name="JWA"/> She put abortion on the agenda of the ACLU Biennial Conference in 1964, though the board did not take up the issue until 1967.<ref name="ACLU">{{cite book|last=Walker|first=Samuel|title=In Defense of American Liberties, Second Edition: A History of the ACLU|year=1999|publisher=Southern Illinois University Press|location=Carbondale|isbn=978-0-8093-2270-1|pages=301–302|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hdkrBVJ37I4C&dq=Harriet+Pilpel&pg=PA301|edition=2nd}}</ref> Alongside Aryeh Neier, Pilpel helped organize the campaign against New York's anti-abortion law.<ref name="ACLU"/> She authored Planned Parenthood's ''amicus'' brief for ''Roe v. Wade'' and strategized with attorneys Sarah Weddington and Linda Coffee, organizing moot court practices prior to arguments in the case.<ref name="JWA"/> Following the passage of ''Roe'' in 1973, she mentored lawyers who tried to prevent the exclusion of abortions from Medicaid.<ref name="NAW"/>
Pilpel helped to establish minors' rights to abortion and contraception. She presented a paper on the legal rights of minors to the International Council of Women in 1973.<ref>{{cite news|last=MacDonald|first=Alix|title=Women advocate a Govt Minister of Family|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=pdtUAAAAIBAJ&sjid=zZADAAAAIBAJ&pg=2756,1798521&dq=harriet-pilpel&hl=en|newspaper=The Age|date=August 8, 1973}}</ref> She argued in 1977's ''Carey v. Population Services International'' on behalf of a minor's right to acquire contraceptives without parental consent.<ref name="NAW"/>
During the 1960s, Pilpel served on the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women under the Kennedy and Johnson administrations.<ref name="NYT"/> Beginning in 1965, Pilpel was an advisor to the United States Women's Bureau of the United States Department of Labor.<ref name="NYT"/> She was chair of the Law Panel International of Planned Parenthood Federation from 1970 to 1978.<ref name="NYT"/> From 1979 to 1986, she served as general counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).<ref name="NYT"/> She served on the boards of the Guttmacher Institute, the ACLU, and NARAL.<ref name="Asteria"/> She was also co-chair of the National Coalition Against Censorship.<ref>{{cite news|title=PMRC, record industry meet|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=M-kxAAAAIBAJ&sjid=mOQFAAAAIBAJ&pg=3994,172722&dq=harriet-pilpel&hl=en|newspaper=Reading Eagle|date=November 22, 1986}}</ref> In the 1950s and 1960s Pilpel also wrote a monthly column for ''Publishers Weekly'' entitled "But Can You Do That?"<ref>{{cite news|last=Alvarez|first=Walter C.|title=U.S. Sex Laws Said Incredible|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=L75aAAAAIBAJ&sjid=TVcDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7197,1134951&dq=harriet-pilpel&hl=en|newspaper=The Evening Independent|date=February 6, 1969}}</ref> She appeared frequently on William F. Buckley Jr.'s television show ''Firing Line''.<ref name="NYT"/>
In 1982, she joined the law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges.<ref name="NYT"/> That year, she donated her research files to Smith College's Sophia Smith Collection.<ref>{{cite web|title=Harriet F. Pilpel Papers, 1913-1981|url=http://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/findaids/sophiasmith/mnsss155_admin.html|publisher=Five College Archives and Manuscript Collections|access-date=February 5, 2013|archive-date=June 19, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100619182343/http://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/findaids/sophiasmith/mnsss155_admin.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
==Selected bibliography== *{{cite book|last1=Pilpel|first1=Harriet|last2=Zavin|first2=Theodora|title=Your Marriage and the Law|year=1952|publisher=Rinehart|location=Toronto|oclc=5773584}} *{{cite book|last1=Pilpel|first1=Harriet|last2=Zavin|first2=Theodora|author-mask=2|title=Rights and Writers: A Handbook of Literary and Entertainment Law|url=https://archive.org/details/rightswritershan00pilp|url-access=registration|year=1960|publisher=Dutton|location=New York|oclc=1457829}} *{{cite book|last=Pilpel|first=Harriet|author-mask=2|title=A copyright guide|url=https://archive.org/details/copyrightguide0000pilp|url-access=registration|year=1960|publisher=R. R. Bowker Co.|location=New York|oclc=964807|author2=Goldberg, Morton David }} *{{cite book|last1=Pilpel|first1=Harriet|last2=Peyser|first2=Minna Post |author-mask=2|title=Know Your Rights: What a working wife should know about her legal rights|url=https://archive.org/details/knowyourrights0l39unse|url-access=registration|year=1965}} *{{cite news|last=Pilpel|first=Harriet|author-mask=2|title=The Right of Abortion|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/95sep/abortion/pilp.htm|newspaper=The Atlantic Monthly|date=June 1969}}
==Personal life== On June 15, 1933, she married social service executive Robert C. Pilpel.<ref name="Asteria">{{cite web|url=http://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/findaids/sophiasmith/mnsss155.html|title=Finding Aid for the Harriet F. Pilpel Papers, 1913-1981|publisher=Five College Archives & Manuscript Collections|access-date=February 5, 2013|archive-date=June 19, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100619180327/http://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/findaids/sophiasmith/mnsss155.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 1987, Pilpel was widowed.<ref name="nytimes/1987/07/09/obit">{{cite news |title=Robert C. Pilpel |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/07/09/obituaries/robert-pilpel.html |access-date=7 July 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=9 July 1987}}</ref> She remarried, to New York Medical College administrator Irvin B. Schwartz on March 13, 1989.<ref>{{cite news|title=Harriet Pilpel and Irvin Schwartz Wed|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/03/13/style/harriet-pilpel-and-irvin-schwartz-wed.html|newspaper=The New York Times|date=March 13, 1989}}</ref> She died of a heart attack on April 23, 1991, in Manhattan. She was 79.<ref name="NYT">{{cite news|last=Cook|first=Joan|title=Harriet Pilpel, 79, Lawyer, Dies; An Advocate of Women's Rights|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/04/24/obituaries/harriet-pilpel-79-lawyer-dies-an-advocate-of-women-s-rights.html|newspaper=The New York Times|date=April 24, 1991|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150525232112/http://www.nytimes.com/1991/04/24/obituaries/harriet-pilpel-79-lawyer-dies-an-advocate-of-women-s-rights.html|url-status=live|archive-date=May 25, 2015}}</ref>
Her son, Robert Harry Pilpel, is an author.<ref name="Inside Story Woodstock">{{cite book |last1=Roberts |first1=John |last2=Rosenman |first2=Joel |last3=Pilpel |first3=Robert H. |author1-link=Joel Rosenman |author2-link=John Roberts |author3-link=Robert Pilpel |title=Young Men with Unlimited Capital: The Inside Story of the Legendary Woodstock Festival Told By The Two People Who Paid for It |date=1974 |publisher=Harcourt Brace Jovanovich |location=New York |isbn=9780151559770 |edition=1st |oclc=922819}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |title=author: Robert H. Pilpel |url=https://harpers.org/author/roberthpilpel/ |access-date=7 July 2022 |magazine=Harper's Magazine |language=en}}</ref><ref name="978-0151119288">{{cite news |title=Between Eternities by Robert H. Pilpel |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780151119288 |access-date=7 July 2022 |work=Publishers Weekly}}</ref><ref name="oclc/3594860">{{cite book |last1=Pilpel |first1=Robert H |last2=Brooks |first2=Mel |author1-link=Robert Pilpel |author2-link=Mel Brooks |title=High Anxiety |date=1977 |publisher=Ace Books |location=New York |oclc=3594860 |language=English |quote=by Mel Brooks, Ron Clark, Rudy De Luca, Barry Levinson; novelization by Robert H. Pilpel.}}</ref><ref name="stanfordmag-5380">{{cite journal |title=Letters to the Editor |journal=Stanford Magazine |date=1 May 2009 |url=https://stanfordmag.org/contents/letters-to-the-editor-5380 |access-date=7 July 2022 |language=en |quote=Robert H. Pilpel, '63; White Plains, New York;}}</ref><ref name="kirkusreviews-TtHotF">{{cite news |title=To The Honor Of The Fleet by Robert Pilpel |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/a/robert-h-pilpel/to-the-honor-of-the-fleet/ |access-date=7 July 2022 |work=Kirkus Reviews |date=July 1, 1979 |language=en |quote=An enormous, robust, but somewhat scatterbrained first novel about naval espionage prior to America's entrance into America's entrance into World War I.}}</ref>
== Honors == Pilpel was honored with a fellowship in NYU Law's Hays Program, the Harriet Pilpel-Planned Parenthood Fellowship.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Arthur Garfield Hays Civil Liberties Program: Fellowships|url=http://www.law.nyu.edu/academics/fellowships/haysprogram/Fellowships/index.htm|publisher=New York University School of Law |access-date=February 5, 2013}}</ref>
==Further reading== *{{cite web|title=Harriet F. Pilpel Papers, 1913-1981|url=http://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/findaids/sophiasmith/mnsss155.html|work=Sophia Smith Collection|publisher=Smith College|year=1913–1981|access-date=2013-02-06|archive-date=2010-06-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100619180327/http://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/findaids/sophiasmith/mnsss155.html|url-status=dead}}
==References== {{Reflist|33em}}
==External links== * [https://findingaids.smith.edu/repositories/2/resources/506 Harriet F. Pilpel papers] at the Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College Special Collections * Kara M. McClurken. [http://infomotions.com/sandbox/liam/pages/mnsss155.html Harriet F. Pilpel Papers, 1913-1981] Finding Aid * [https://hollisarchives.lib.harvard.edu/repositories/8/resources/5635 Papers of Harriet F. Pilpel, 1967-1980] Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Pilpel, Harriet Fleischl}} Category:1911 births Category:1991 deaths Category:American birth control activists Category:American feminists Category:American women's rights activists Category:American free speech activists Category:American Civil Liberties Union people Category:Lawyers from the Bronx Category:Activists from the Bronx Category:People associated with Planned Parenthood Category:20th-century American lawyers Category:Civil rights activists from New York (state) Category:20th-century American women lawyers Category:Vassar College alumni Category:Columbia Law School alumni