David Carliner (1918-2007) was a leading immigration, civil liberties, and civil rights lawyer in Washington, D.C. Among the earliest practitioners of immigration and naturalization law, he was an early combatant of anti-miscegenation laws, challenged the segregation of public accommodations, and fought for the rights of sexual minoritiesphoto of David Carlinerto enter the country and have full employment rights in the Federal government. Carliner was chair of the District of Columbia Home Rule Committee and was responsible for the first home rule reforms in 1967. He served as the general counsel of the American Civil Liberties Union; helped to found the ACLU’s National Capital Area chapter and the International Human Rights Law Group (now Global Rights); and served on the boards of the ACLU, the American Jewish Committee, and a variety of other organizations.

You can find more about Carliner on his Wikipedia page.

For information on the American Constitution Society’s David Carliner Public Interest Award, click here.

This bibliography was written and is maintained by David Carliner’s grandson Jacob Remes.

OBITUARIES “David Carliner, Lawyer, Civil Rights Advocate, 89.” Washington Jewish Week. 3 October 2007: 30.

“David Carliner: Remembering a Champion for Washington and for Justice.” Editorial. Washington Post. 27 September 2007: A24.

“In Memoriam.” University of Virginia Magazine Spring 2008: 109.

Martin, Douglas. “David Carliner, Lawyer and Immigration Advocate, Is Dead at 89.” New York Times. 22 September 2007: C10.

Newbeck, Phyl. “David Carliner: American Immigration and Civil Rights Lawyer, He Fought Against Racial Discrimination.” Guardian. 8 October 2007: 36.

Schudel, Matt. “David Carliner; Active in Unpopular Causes.” Washington Post. 23 September 2007: C7.
The Post obituary was reprinted, in whole or in part, in the Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, Grand Rapids Press, Newark, N.J., Star-Ledger, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Columbia, S.C., State, Memphis Commercial Appeal, Nashua Telegraph, Indianapolis Star, Victoria, B.C., Times-Colonist, and Monterey (Calif.) Herald.

BOOKS, ARTICLES, PAMPHLETS AND PUBLISHED TALKS BY CARLINER Carliner, David. The Rights of Aliens: The Basic ACLU Guide to an Alien’s Rights. New York: Avon Books, 1977.

Carliner, David, Lucas Guttentag, Arthur C. Helton, and Wade J. Henderson. The Rights of Aliens and Refugees: The Basic ACLU Guide to Alien and Refugee Rights. 2nd ed. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1990.

Carliner, David, Carolyn Walker, and Patrick Cassidy. Immigration Law Seminar. [Washington]: International Human Rights Law Group, [1989].

Carliner, David. “Domestic and International Protection of Refugees.” In Guide to International Human Rights Practice, edited by Hurst Hannum: page numbers. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1984.

Carliner, David. “Immigration.” In America Wants to Know: The Issues and Answers of the Eighties, edited by George Gallup: 143-144. New York: A&W Publishers, 1983.

Carliner, David. “Asylum Procedures: Proposed Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1982.” In Refugees and Territorial Asylum: Proceedings of the 1982 Annual Legal Conference on Refugees and Territorial Asylum, March 25 and 26, 1982, edited by Lydio F. Tomasi: 98-. New York: Center for Migration Studies, 1982.

Carliner, David. “The Proposed Immigration Model: A Response from Civil Libertarians.” In U.S. Immigration Today: Proceedings of the 1981 Annual National Legal Conference, March 26 and 27, 1981, edited by Lydio F. Tomasi, Austin T. Fragomen, and Rosemarie Rogers: 83-. New York: Center for Migration Studies, 1981.

Carliner, David. “Comment on Briggs: ‘Immigration Reform and U.S. Employment Policy.’” In Immigration Enforcement, Employment Policy, Migrant Rights, and Refugee Movements: Proceedings of the 1985 Annual National Legal Conference on Immigration and Refugee Policy, edited by Lydio F. Tomasi: page numbers. New York: Center for Migration Studies, 1985.

Hall, Linda, David Crosland, and David Carliner. “Session One: Immigration Laws and Policies.” In Immigration and the Mexican National, edited by Gary E. Poitras: 10-. San Antonio, Tex.: Border Research Institute, Trinity University, 1978.

Journal of the Bar Association of the District of Columbia 1956, page 392.

Sessional chairman. Beyond Constructive Engagement: United States Foreign Policy Toward Africa, edited by Elliot P. Skinner: page numbers. New York: Paragon House, 1986.

Booth, John A., David Carliner, Joseph Eldridge, Margaret Ellen Roggensack, and Bonnie Teneriello. Political Transition and the Rule of Law in Guatemala. [Washington]: International Human Rights Law Group, 1988?.

Carliner, David. “Administrative Consideration and Review of Immigration Appeals.” Interpreter Releases 37 (1960): 341-.

Carliner, David. “The Role of the Courts in Immigration Law.” Judges Journal 26 (Spring 1986): 13-15, 47-48.

Carliner, David. “The Implementation of Human Rights Under the U.S. Immigration Law.” In International Human Rights Law and Practice, edited by James C. Tuttle, rev’d ed.: 133-. Chicago: American Bar Association, 1978.

Carliner, David. “United States Compliance with the Helsinki Final Act: The Treatment of Aliens.” Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law 13 (spring-summer 1980): 397-408.

Carliner, David. “The Wrong Message to Beijing.” Washington Post 3 December 1989: C7.

Carliner, David. “Look Again at Iranian Students.” Washington Post 16 November 1979: A21.

Carliner, David. “Innocent Iranians Are Suffering Under U.S. Immigration Policy.” Los Angeles Times 13 May 1980: C5.

Carliner, David. “Aliens Are People, Too.” Washington Post 5 August 1981: A23.

Carliner, David. Review of World Justice? U.S. Courts and International Human Rights, edited by Mark Gibney. American Journal of International Law 86 (1992): 845-847.

Carliner, David. Remarks on “Undocumented Workers in the United States.” American Society of International Law Proceedings 76 (1984): 38-41.

Carliner, David. Review of Human Rights in the World Community – Issues and Action, by Richard Pierre Claude and Burns H. Weston, and New Directions in Human Rights, edited by Ellen Lutz, Hurst Hannum, and Kathryn J. Burke. New York Law School Journal of Human Rights 7 (1989): 375-388.

Carliner, David. Review of Refugees—The Trauma of Exile; The Humanitarian Role of Red Cross and Red Crescent, edited by Diana Miserez. American Journal of International Law 85 (1991): 569-571.

Carliner, David. “Apply the Refugee Act.” New York Times 2 February 1993: A19.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
This is a partial list. A more complete collection can be found in a scrapbook included in the Carliner Family Papers (see below).
“‘Scholastic’ Ban.” Washington Post 6 December 1936: B9.

“‘A Judge and the Law.’” Washington Post 31 January 1958: A12.

“Murray and Mallory.” Washington Post 7 November 1963: A24.

“A Range of Views.” Washington Post 28 July 1964: A14.

“Reorganization Reform.” Washington Post 9 August 1967: A20.

“Some Reasons for ‘Bothering’ About a District Delegate.” Washington Post 27 August 1970: A21.

“Yeldell’s Right to Speak.” Washington Post 21 December 1970: A21.

“Romania: Abridging Human Rights.” Washington Post 6 June 1983: A12.

“‘Who Will Be Persecuted?’” Washington Post 25 June 1984: A10.

“Aliens Have Rights, Too.” Washington Post 29 September 1984: A17.

“More Than a ‘Molehill’ in Immigration Reform.” New York Times 9 October 1984: A32.

“A Gold Rush of Immigrants.” Washington Post 4 August 1986: A12.

“The Problem With Immigration: Same as It Ever Was.” Washington Post 9 November 1996: A25.

BOOKS AND ARTICLES ABOUT OR REFERENCING CARLINER AND HIS ACTIVITIES

Note that the references to Carliner in these books vary; sometimes he is mentioned only once or twice, sometimes he is a major character. On occasion, he appears only in the notes, although mere citations to his published works and Congressional testimonies have been omitted. Also included are discussions of Carliner’s cases. The list excludes newspaper articles about Carliner’s cases and activities or which cite him as an expert in immigration law.

Civil Rights and Naim v. Naim

Dorr, Gregory Michael. “Principled Expediency: Eugenics, Naim v. Naim, and the Supreme Court.” American Journal of Legal History 42 (1998): 119-159.

Durr, Virginia Foster. Outside the Magic Circle: The Autobiography of Virginia Foster Durr. University, Ala.: University of Alabama Press, 1985.

Gold, Susan Dudley. Loving v. Virginia: Lifting the Ban Against Interracial Marriage. New York: Marshall Cavendish Benchmark, 2008.

Lawson, Steven F. Black Ballots: Voting Rights in the South, 1944-1969. New York: Columbia University Press, 1976; republished Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books 1999.

Moran, Richard, and Rachel F. Moran. Interracial Intimacy: The Regulation of Race and Romance. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003.

Newbeck, Phyl. Virginia Hasn’t Always Been for Lovers. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2004.

Pascoe, Peggy. What Comes Naturally: Miscegenation Law and the Making of Race in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009).

Silber, Norman I. With All Deliberate Speed: The Life of Philip Elman. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2004.
See also Philip Elman, “The Solicitor General’s Office, Justice Frankfurter, and Civil Rights Litigation, 1946-1960: An Oral History,” Harvard Law Review 100 (1986): 817-852.

Wallenstein, Peter. Tell the Court I Love My Wife: Race, Marriage, and Law, an American History. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.

Wallenstein, Peter. “Race, Marriage, and the Law of Freedom: Alabama and Virginia, 1860s-1960s.” Chicago-Kent Law Review 70 (1994): 371-437.

Gay Rights, Boutilier v. INS and Scott v. Macy

D’Emelio, John. Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making of a Homosexual Minority in the United States, 1940-1970. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.

Eskridge, William N. Dishonorable Passions: Sodomy Laws in America, 1861-2003. New York: Penguin, 2008

Johnson, David K. The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004.

Stein, Marc. “Boutilier and the U.S. Supreme Court’s Sexual Revolution.” Law and History Review 23 (2005): 491-536.

Other topics

Baraheni, Reza. The Crowned Cannibals: Writings on Repression in Iran. New York: Vintage, 1977.

Claude, Richard Pierre. The Supreme Court and the Electoral Process. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1970.

Donohue, William A. The Politics of the American Civil Liberties Union. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Press, 1985.

Hanson, Christopher T. “Behind the Paper Curtain: Asylum Policy Versus Asylum Practice.” New York University Review of Law and Social Change 7 (winter 1978): 107-141.

Howe, Russell Warren. Sleeping with the FBI: Sex, Booze, Russians, and the Saga of an American Counterspy Who Couldn’t. Washington: National Press Books, 1993.

Lewis, Richard S. Appointment on the Moon: The Inside Story of America’s Space Venture. New York: Viking Press, 1968.

Rostron, Allen. “Inside the ACLU: Activism and Anti-Communism in the Late 1960s.” New England Law Review 33 (winter 1999): 425-474.

Salans, Carl F., and Richard A. Frank. “Passports and Area Restrictions.” Stanford Law Review 20 (May 1968): 839-857.

Thomas, Evan. The Man to See: Edward Bennett Williams, Ultimate Insider, Legendary Trial Lawyer. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1991.

PRIMARY SOURCES The Carliner Family Papers, comprising the personal and political papers of David and Miriam Carliner, are held by the Washingtoniana Division of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Library, Washington, D.C. The collection is now being processed.

Charles Rieschel conducted an oral history with Carliner under the auspices of the Historical Society of the District of Columbia Circuit. It is available online and in three reading-rooms in the D.C. area.

Carliner testified numerous times before Congress, and his testimony is available in various Congressional publications. Likewise, his briefs and the court decisions in many of his cases are available.

Researchers may also be interested in the papers of the organizations in which Carliner was active. See, for instance, the archives of the American Civil Liberties Union at Princeton University and those of Global Rights at Duke University. Researchers might also look at the published minutes of the American Bar Association sections in which Carliner was active.

In addition, letters or other material from David Carliner is found in these collections (incomplete list). The papers of the Center for Civil & Human Rights, Notre Dame Archives, Notre Dame, Ind., include an oral history with Carliner, catalogued as ACRC A2944 Audio (Cassette) : David Carliner, International Attorney 1980/0811.

The Harry Flood Byrd, Sr., Papers include a folder of correspondence from Carliner in box 243. Accession number 9700, 9700-b, Special Collections Department, University of Virginia, Charlottesville.

Helen Lehman Buttenweiser Papers, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. MC 425.

Robert C. Elliot Papers, Mandeville Special Collections Library, Geisel Library, University of California, San Diego. MSS 0127. Correspondence (1971-1973) Folder 66, Box 1.

Bernard Rapoport Papers. “David Carliner problem.” Box 4C507c. Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin.

“President’s Papers,” RG 2/1/2.491, subseries III, box 1, administrative council folder; and box 5, Dean Lewis folder, 1939, both in Special Collections, Alderman Library, University of Virginia, Charlottesville.

Material related to Carliner are in boxes 40 and 108 of the Frank Kameny Papers, MSS85340, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

creative commons some rights reserved David Carliner: A Bibliography in Progress by Jacob Remes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License

For more information or to add resources to this list, please contact Jacob Remes.