Hayden Covington (1911–1980)

Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658)

Clarence Darrow (1857–1938)

Joseph Martin Dawson

Eugene V. Debs (1855–1926)

Ramsey Clark (1927–)

Tom Campbell Clark (1899–1977)

Roy Cohn (1927–1986)

Anthony Comstock (1844–1915)

Eugene ‘‘Bull’’ Connor (1897–1973)

Alan Dershowitz (1938–)

General John DeWitt (1880–1962)

Martin Dies (1900–1972)

William Orville Douglas (1898–1980)

Frederick Douglass (1818–1895)

Dworkin, Andrea (1946–2005)

Emerson, Thomas Irwin (1907–1991)

Lord John Acton (1834–1902)

Lord John Acton, the great liberal academic who dominated the field of history during the latter part of the Victorian Age, was born into a family of the upper echelon of society in Italy and moved to England at the age of three.

Anthony G. Amsterdam (1935–)

Anthony Amsterdam, law professor and opponent of the death penalty, earned an A.B. from Haverford College in 1957 and an L.L.B. in 1960 from the University of Pennsylvania.

Harry Jacob Anslinger (1892–1975)

Harry Anslinger was born in Altoona, Pennsylvania, the son of an immigrant railroad worker. He earned an associate degree in engineering and business management and then went to work for the Pennsylvania Railroad as an investigator.

Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906)

Susan B. Anthony, reformer and women’s suffragist, was born in Adams, Massachusetts, to Daniel Anthony and Lucy Read, one of eight children.

John Ashcroft (1942–)

John Ashcroft served as attorney general during the first term of the administration of George W. Bush, and in his last year in office analysts were terming him the worst attorney general in the nation’s history.

Benjamin Franklin Bache

Born the grandson of Benjamin Franklin and educated in Geneva, Benjamin Franklin Bache epitomized early America’s ambivalent relationship with the press.

Roger Baldwin (1884–1981)

Roger Baldwin was the founder of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and served as its director from 1920 to 1950. He was widely recognized as the foremost advocate of civil liberties in the United States during those years.

Francis Beverly Biddle (1886–1968)

Francis Biddle, the scion of a family that emigrated to America in the early seventeenth century, attended private schools, including Harvard College, from which he graduated cum laude, and the Harvard Law School, where he received an LL.B. in 1911.

John Armor Bingham (1815–1900)

John Armor Bingham, an Ohio lawyer, was a prominent figure in American politics and government in the latter half of the nineteenth century. He participated in many of the key events surrounding and shortly after the Civil War.

Robert Heron Bork (1927–)

Noted jurist, author, and scholar, Robert Heron Bork was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He received a B.A. from the University of Chicago in 1948 and a J.D. in 1953.

Louis Dembitz Brandeis (1856–1941)

An extremely effective lawyer and reformer in the Progressive era before Woodrow Wilson named him to the Supreme Court in 1916, Brandeis had very little if any contact with issues that would be identified as civil liberties.

Stephen Gerald Breyer (1938–)

Justice Stephen Breyer, a Massachusetts Democrat, was President Bill Clinton’s second and final appointment to the Court (following Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 1993).

Lenny Bruce (1925–1966)

Lenny Bruce is often considered the most influential figure in modern comedy, a pioneer of the acerbic social satire that would dominate the genre in the latter half of the twentieth century.

William Jennings Bryan (1860–1925)

Perhaps best known for his famous ‘‘Cross of Gold’’ speech, William Jennings Bryan had a public career lasting some thirty years.

Anita Bryant (1940–)

If the Stonewall riot was the event that galvanized the movement for gays’ civil rights, Anita Bryant was the personality that first embodied at the national level the opposition to those rights.

Warren E. Burger (1907–1995)

Chief Justice Warren Earl Burger was the fifteenth chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Appointed in 1969 to the Supreme Court by President Nixon, Burger served for seventeen years until 1986. 

Edmund Burke (1729–1797)

Edmund Burke, British statesman and political philosopher, and the ‘‘father’’ of modern conservatism, was born in Dublin on January 29, 1729. He was the son of a Protestant lawyer and a Roman Catholic mother.

Justice Harold Burton (1888–1964)

Harold Hitz Burton, mayor of Cleveland, senator from Ohio and associate justice to the U.S. Supreme Court was born on June 22, 1888, in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts.

Pierce Butler (1866–1939)

Pierce Butler, one of the most conservative justices ever to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court, was born March 17, 1866, in a log cabin on a Minnesota farm.

John Caldwell Calhoun (1882–1850)

John C. Calhoun received an elite education, studying under a prominent reverend tutor, and then graduating from Yale College. After his admission to the South Carolina bar, Calhoun was elected to the South Carolina legislature.

Benjamin Cardozo (1870–1938)

Benjamin Nathan Cardozo was born into a Sephardic Jewish family in New York City in 1870.

Carrie Chapman Catt (1859–1947)

In 1859, Carrie Chapman Catt was born Carrie Clinton Lane in Wisconsin. She and her family soon moved to Iowa where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Iowa State Agricultural College in 1880.

Zechariah Chafee Jr. (1885–1957)

Zechariah Chafee Jr., attorney, professor, legal scholar and well-known champion of civil liberties, was born on December 7, 1885, in Providence, Rhode Island.

Whittaker Chambers (1901–1961)

Whittaker Chambers, born Jay Vivian Chambers in Brooklyn, New York, in 1901, was a central figure in one of the most sensational of the post-1945 Red Scare investigations conducted by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).

Samuel Chase (1744–1811)

Although an ardent patriot, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and an associate justice of the U. S. Supreme Court who made a significant contribution to nineteenth-century American jurisprudence. . .

Cesar Chavez (1927–1993)

Cesar Chavez, farm worker, civil rights activist, and union leader, was born near Yuma, Arizona, to Librado Chavez and Juana Estrada, who owned a farm and several small businesses.

Erwin Chemerinsky (1953–)

Erwin Chemerinsky was born May 14, 1953, in Chicago, Illinois. He grew up on the south side of Chicago in a working class family and was the first member of his family to go to college.

Caryl Chessman (1921–1960)

Caryl Chessman, born in St. Joseph, Michigan, in 1921, grew up in Glendale, California. During the Depression, Chessman began stealing food to provide for his family.

Estes, Billie Sol (1925–)

Evers, Medgar Wiley (1925–1963)

Falwell, Jerry (1933–)

Field, Stephen J. (1816–1899)

Flynt, Larry (1942–)

Fortas, Abe (1910–1982)

Frank, John P. (1917–2002)

Frankfurter, Felix (1882–1965)

Franklin, Benjamin (1706 –1790)

Freund, Paul A. (1908-1992)

Garrison, William Lloyd (1805–1879)

Giddings, Joshua Reed (1795–1864)

Gideon, Clarence Earl (1910–1972)

Gilmore, Gary (1940–1977)

Ginsburg, Ruth Bader (1933–)

Goldberg, Arthur J. (1908–1990)

Hague, Frank (1876–1956)

Hamilton, Alexander (1757–1804)

Hamilton, Andrew (1676–1741)

Hand, (Billings) Learned (1872–1961)

Harlan, John Marshall, the Elder (1833–1911)

Harlan, John Marshall, II (1899–1971)

Hays, Will H. (1879–1954)

Helper, Hinton (1829–1909)

Hentoff, Nat (1925–)

Hiss, Alger (1904–1996)

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. (1841–1935)

Hoover, J. Edgar (1895–1972)

Hughes, Charles Evans (1862–1948)

Jackson, Andrew (1767–1845)

Jackson, Robert H. (1892–1954)

Jefferson, Thomas (1743–1826)

Johnson, Frank Minis, Jr. (1918–1999)

Johnson, Lyndon Baines (1908–1973)

Justice, William Wayne (1920–)

Kamisar, Yale (1929–)

Kaufman, Irving Robert (1910–1992)

Kendall, Amos (1789–1869)

Kennedy, Anthony McLeod (1936–)

Kevorkian, Jack (1928–)

King, Martin Luther, Jr. (1929–1968)

Kunstler, William M.

La Follette, Robert Marion, Sr. (1855–1925)

Lilborne, John (Freeborn John) (1614–1657)

Lincoln, Abraham (1809–1865)

Locke, John (1632–1704)

LONG, HUEY PIERCE (1893–1935)

Lovejoy, Elijah (1802–1837)

MACKINNON, CATHARINE (1946–)

Madison, James (1751–1836)

John Marshall (1755–1835)

John Marshall

Thurgood Marshall (1908–1993)

Thurgood Marshall

George Mason (1725–1792)

George Mason

Joseph McCarthy (1908–1957)

Joseph McCarthy (1908–1957)

Norma McCorvey (Jane Roe) (1947–)

James C. McReynolds (1862–1946)

James C. McReynolds

Edwin Meese III (1931–)

Alexander Meiklejohn (1872–1964)

John Stuart Mill (1806–1873)

John Stuart Mill (1806–1873)

Ernesto Arturo Miranda (1941–1976)

John Mitchell (1913–1988)

Montesquieu (1689–1755)

Frank Murphy (1890–1949)

John Courtney Murray (1904–1967)

Richard Milhous Nixon (1913–1990)

Sandra Day O’Connor (1930–)

Sandra Day O’Connor (1930–)

A. Mitchell Palmer (1872–1936)

William Penn (1644–1718)

William Penn (1644–1718)

Wendell Phillips (1811–1884)

Lewis Franklin Powell, Jr. (1907–1998)

Lewis Franklin Powell, Jr. (1907–1998)

Sister Helen Prejean (1939–)

Sister Helen Prejean (1939–)

Karen Ann Quinlan (1954–1985)

Karen Ann Quinlan (1954–1985)

Joseph L. Rauh, Jr. (1911–1992)

Joseph L. Rauh, Jr. (1911–1992)

John Bordley Rawls (1929–2002)

William H. Rehnquist (1924–2005)

Janet Reno (1938–)

Janet Reno (1938–)

Owen Josephus Roberts (1875–1955)

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882–1945)

Richard Rorty (1931–)

Julius Rosenberg and Ethel Rosenberg

Benjamin Rush (1746–1813)

Benjamin Rush (1746–1813)

Wiley Blount Rutledge, Jr. (1894–1949)

George Ryan (1934–)

Margaret Higgins Sanger (1879–1966)

Antonin Scalia (1936–)

Antonin Scalia (1936–)

Lemuel Shaw (1781–1861)

Matthew Shepard (1976–1998)

Roger Sherman (1721–1793)

David Hackett Souter (1939–)

Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)

John Paul Stevens (1920–)

Potter Stewart (1915–1985)

Potter Stewart (1915–1985)

Harlan Fiske Stone (1872–1946)

Harlan Fiske Stone (1872–1946)

Moorfield Storey (1845–1929)

Joseph Story (1779–1845)

Joseph Story (1779–1845)

Nadine Strossen (1950–)

Nadine Strossen (1950–)

Charles Sumner (1811–1874)

William Howard Taft (1857–1930)

Clarence Thomas (1948–)

Clarence Thomas (1948–)

Laurence H. Tribe (1941–)

Fred Moore Vinson (1890–1953)

David Walker (1795/6/7–1830)

Earl Warren (1891–1974)

Earl Warren (1891–1974)

Sarah Ragle Weddington (1945–)

Sarah Ragle Weddington (1945–)

Joseph N. Welch (1890–1960)

Joseph N. Welch (1890–1960)

Ida Bell Wells-Barnett (1862–1931)

Ida Bell Wells-Barnett (1862–1931)

Byron Raymond White (1917–2002)

Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)

Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)