Weasels And My Wife Poem by gershon hepner

“Who is that weasel giving my son David a hard time? ”
a mother asked when watching him appear before the judge.
It’s what my wife will say to you if you don’t like my rhyme.
You are not Felix Frankfurter, and she will bear a grudge
against all people acting as if they were a Supreme
Court judge like Felix Frankfurter. You’ll have to show repentance
if you usurp her privilege to hurt my self-esteem,
or suffer, if I’ve any influence, a lengthy sentence.

Inspired by an obituary of David I. Shapiro by Stephen Miller and Cassell Bryan-Low in the WSJ, October 20,2009 (“A Courtroom Brawler Who Later Advocated Compromise”) . He once represented on a pro bono basis George Lincoln Rockwell, head of the American Nazi Party, who in 1960 was charged with disorderly conduct for distributing pamphlets that advocated killing Jews in gas chambers. “As distasteful as I found the literature in this case, I find even more distasteful any attempts to prevent its distribution, ' Mr. Shapiro said from the steps of a Washington courthouse. But his most famous court appearance occurred when he was 27, and successfully argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in Cole v. Young on behalf of a federal food and drug inspector who had been suspended over alleged Communist associations. Sixteen other federal employees in various agencies were restored to their jobs as the Eisenhower administration suspended its loyalty-security program. During the proceedings, Mr. Shapiro's parents, both hard of hearing, turned out to see their son in make his first appearance before the Supreme Court, says Paul Taskier, a Dickstein Shapiro partner and son-in-law of Mr. Shapiro. As Justice Felix Frankfurter vigorously questioned the young lawyer, his father turned to his mother and said in a voice audible throughout the courtroom, 'Who's that little weasel giving our David a hard time? ' 'If the floor could have opened up and swallowed me, I wish it would have, ' Mr. Taskier recalled Mr. Shapiro saying.

10/20/09