Scope and arrangement
The Michael Kennedy papers, dating from 1967 to 2014, document Kennedy's legal career, mainly through case files, but also through writings, speeches, clippings, and biographical information. The bulk of the collection dates from the early 1980s to 2007. The case files hold briefs, trial and hearing transcripts, depositions, summonses, evidence files, and other court records; notes and research of legal precedent; and correspondence with clients, other legal counsel, and judges. Some also hold audio and video recordings or photographs. The collection is arranged alphabetically by client or subject. Within that arrangement are three sub-groups of case types: Drug Cases and Drug Law Reform; First Amendment Cases; and Political Activism.
The most voluminous cases or subjects in the collection are filed under Drug Cases and Drug Law Reform. These include drug smuggling clients such as John Knock, Christopher Bianco, Ana Lucia Rosa, and Milton Robins; Hemp Times magazine, the files for which contain research and correspondence in the late 1990s regarding the emerging hemp industry in various states and how to best market to and serve it; and files regarding a Group Petition for Clemency for Pot Lifers, assembled by Kennedy and others and sent to President Clinton.
The First Amendment section has three case files: Leslie and Andrew Cockburn; Dr. Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook; and Susan McDougal.
The Cockburn files document a libel lawsuit filed against Leslie Cockburn, an investigative reporter who wrote the book Out of Control about the CIA's drug smuggling in Central America; the suit was brought by Major General Richard Secord of the United States Air Force (a figure in the Iran-Contra scandal), and eventually dismissed. The files include annotated drafts of the book, as well as video segments from the PBS series Frontline produced by Andrew Cockburn on the same topic. The Marzook files concern Marzook's arrest and deportation from the United States in 1995 at the request of the Israeli government and Kennedy's unsuccessful attempts to reverse it.
The Susan McDougal files document her legal battle and imprisonment after being held in contempt of court for refusing to testify against President Clinton for special prosecutor Kenneth Starr in the Whitewater affair, in 1996; Kennedy negotiated her eventual release. The files include correspondence between McDougal and Kennedy regarding her treatment in prison, and video recordings of her media appearances.
The Political Activism files mainly pertain to Weather Underground members and Irish Republican Army (IRA) figures. Kennedy represented Weather Underground leader Bernardine Dohrn and negotiated her surrender to authorities in 1980 after she spent 11 years in hiding; he also represented Judith Clark, Kathy Boudin, and David Gilbert, who participated in the 1981 robbery of an armored truck during which several law enforcement officers were killed. The case files include literature and political statements issued by the Weather Underground in the early 1970s, as well as the transcript of a 1974 Senate hearing on internal security and radical political groups.
The IRA files cover the cases of several men who were ultimately acquitted of illegally trading in firearms to supply the organization, including Michael Flannery and Eamon Peter Maguire. The Political Activism files also contain a folder regarding Huey Newton; Kennedy defended the Black Panther Party co-founder in a murder case that ended in a mistrial in 1979, but the collection contains only a book of clippings regarding the case, with no other documentation.
Other clients with significant or notable content in the collection include Timothy Leary, whose file holds letters and cards to the Kennedys from 1970 until his death in 1994; Aaron Charney, who accused the law firm Sullivan and Cromwell of firing him for being gay; Jean Harris, whose files document Kennedy's successful efforts to secure her clemency from New York Governor Mario Cuomo in 1993; Warren M. Levin, a doctor who practiced alternative medicine; the Catholic priest Bernárd Lynch; and the "Pizza Connection" and John Gotti Mafia cases. Two folders exist regarding Ivana Trump; they concern only monies owed by Trump to private investigators engaged by Kennedy on her behalf. The Mitchell Brothers files pertain mainly to a lawsuit brought by sex workers against a strip club owned by Jim Mitchell, a longtime client of Kennedy. The workers attempted to prove they were employees of the club, not independent contractors.
The Legal Practice files contain notes and texts for Kennedy's speeches on legal topics and his participation in legal forums and seminars; biographical information; and clippings. The speeches include such topics as "Defending the Unpopular Client," "Dissent is Good for You," "Ethical Considerations in Drug Cases," and "Some Thoughts on Closing Argument to the Jury." An essay by Kennedy, "Why I Decided To Pass On The Nineties Entirely," regarding the deterioration of the United States justice system caused by the Drug War, appears not in these files, but in the Drug Cases and Drug Reform files under the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML). The biographical data in the Legal Practice files includes a detailed history of important cases argued by Kennedy from the mid-1960s to the 1990s. The clippings date from 1977 to 1993.
Kennedy was an active participant in national and local legal organizations, such as the American Bar Association (ABA). The ABA files include documentation of Kennedy's planning of and participation in a West Bank Mock Arbitration program held at the ABA's annual meeting in 1990, focused on the human rights and international law implications of the First Palestinian Intifada. The files include transcripts of the event; correspondence between Kennedy and the other program participants; writings on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by Francis Boyle; notes and memos; and a participant list with resumes.
Kennedy was active with the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights and maintained files of research on the topic. The Human Rights Issues files cover such nations as Nicaragua, South Africa, and Portugal. Most of the files pertain to Nicaragua, as Kennedy served as a legal advisor to the Sandinista government.
The collection also contains copies of Michael and Eleanora Kennedy's FBI files, dating from the late 1960s to the late 1970s. Portions of the files are redacted.
Arrangement
The collection is arranged alphabetically by client or topic. Kennedy arranged three classes of clients together: Drug Cases and Drug Law Reform; First Amendment Cases; and Political Activism. All other clients appear in the general alphabetical listing.