Henry W. Sawyer
Henry Washington Sawyer III (December 23, 1918[1] – July 31, 1999) was an American lawyer, civil rights activist and politician.
Born in Philadelphia, he served in the U.S. Navy in World War II, afterwards returning to the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
In Abington School District v. Schempp and Lemon v. Kurtzman, he successfully argued cases on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union before the Supreme Court of the United States that became the basis for all modern Establishment Clause jurisprudence.
[7] After graduation, Sawyer enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) where he wrote for The Daily Pennsylvanian, joined the Zeta Psi fraternity, and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
[17] In 1953, he was one of several volunteer (pro bono) defense attorneys in the case of United States v. Kuzma, a prosecution of Communist sympathizers under the Smith Act, which barred anyone from advocating for the overthrow of the American government.
[20] Sawyer's client, Bernhard Deutch, was a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania who was subpoenaed by the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1954.
[25] The ACLU and Schempp's parents believed the school prayer law violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.
[29] The panel agreed in an opinion written by Judge John Biggs Jr.[30] After the trial, the state legislature changed the law to allow students to be excused from the Bible readings if they wished.
In further hearings in 1962 the court, again in an opinion by Biggs, held that the law still violated the Constitution by allowing the state "to introduce a religious ceremony into the public schools of the Commonwealth.
[35] Although the statute specifically barred state funds from paying for "any subject matter expressing religious teaching, or the morals or forms of worship of any sect", civil rights activist Alton Lemon believed the law still allowed for the state to effectively fund religious schools, a violation of the Establishment Clause.
Judge Emanuel Mac Troutman, writing for the panel, explained that under the rules set forth in Schempp, the Act had a secular purpose and did not fund religion.
[40] Chief Justice Warren E. Burger, writing for a seven-justice majority, held that "the cumulative impact of the entire relationship arising under the statutes in each State involves excessive entanglement between government and religion.
"[41] The test handed down in Lemon remains the core of the process for determining whether a state action violates the Establishment Clause.
[48] By the rules of the limited voting system for the at-large seats, each political party could nominate five candidates and voters could only choose five.
[53] Such disagreements led the Democratic City Committee to withhold their endorsement of Sawyer for a second term in 1959, and he retired from elected office to return to his law practice.
[55] Beyond strictly legal and political concerns, Sawyer was also interested in the plight of black Americans, and became involved in the Civil Rights Movement.
"[56] In 1965, he traveled to Selma, Alabama, to help register black voters there and in Mississippi, and gave legal representation to activists who were charged with breaking local ordinances.
[15] Sawyer represented nine black applicants in a series of cases that spanned nearly a decade, culminating in court-ordered measures to ensure greater racial diversity on the force.
"[7] Sawyer served on the boards of many civic organizations, including the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia, the Episcopal Hospital, the Delaware River Port Authority, and the Fairmount Park Art Association.
