William Kunstler was a famour, perhaps notorious civil rights lawyer. Two of his daughters Emily and Sarah (born when he was 57) have made a documentary film about him, “William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe”, from ArtHouse Films. It is also sponsored by PBS point-of-view so it should air eventually on PBS. I saw it at Landmark E Street in Washington, website here. Kunstler (1919-1995) was an “accidental war hero” in the Pacific, and came home to Westchester County NY to start a conventional law practice. He gradually developed a passion for civil rights. He defended the “Chicago 7” (or Chicago 10) in 1969 and was actually sentenced to four years for contempt of court, which he never served. He would say that he was "paying his dues" and earning "the privilege of being listened to" (as I call the concept elsewhere), by taking the same risks and punishment as his defendants. Later he defended native Americans at Wounded Knee, SD (as covered in a book by Russell Means, well known in libertarian circles, as he spoked at a Libertarian Party of Minnesota convention in 2001). He would also defend prisoners at Attica during the 1971 uprising, which is covered quite graphically in the film with a lot of real footage. Later he would defend perpetrators of the 1993 World Trade Center attack, preceding 9/11.
Kunstler believed that tyrants maintain power by making despotic practices “legal”.
Note: In 2007, HBO aired its popular (and long) docudrama "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" 2007, HBO / Picturehouse, dir. Yves Simoneau, 123 min, PG-13, book by Dee Alexander Brown.
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