Abraham J. Isserman was an American lawyer and activist who defended Gerhart Eisler in 1947 and CPUSA leaders in the Foley Square trial (1949): he was found in contempt of court by Judge Harold Medina, sentenced to four months in jail (1952), and disbarred.
Defendants Robert Thompson and Benjamin J. Davis during Foley Square trial, which Isserman helped defend
Smith Act trials of Communist Party leaders
The Smith Act trials of Communist Party leaders in New York City from 1949 to 1958 were the result of US federal government prosecutions in the postwar period and during the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States. Leaders of the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA) were accused of violating the Smith Act, a statute that prohibited advocating violent overthrow of the government. The defendants argued that they advocated a peaceful transition to socialism, and that the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of speech and of association protected their membership in a political party. Appeals from these trials reached the US Supreme Court, which ruled on issues in Dennis v. United States (1951) and Yates v. United States (1957).
Defendants Robert Thompson and Benjamin J. Davis with supporters
This 1919 political cartoon reflects U.S. fears about Bolshevism and anarchism during the First Red Scare.
J. Edgar Hoover.
The 1949 trial was held in the Foley Square federal courthouse in Manhattan.
