Saturday, February 7, 2009

Washburn on Felix Cohen, Anti-Semitism and American Indian Law

Felix Cohen, Anti-Semitism and American Indian Law is a new essay by Kevin K. Washburn, University of Arizona, James E. Rogers College of Law. It appears in the American Indian Law Review (2009). Here's the abstract:
Felix Cohen and his work is discussed in several new books, including an important intellectual biography of Cohen by Dalia Tsuk Mitchell. Using the Tsuk Mitchell biography as a starting point, this essay discusses an important episode in Cohen's life, involving apparent anti-Semitism at the Department of Justice, which is not adequately explored in the otherwise excellent biography by Tsuk Mitchell. As a result, Cohen remains a mystery in some respects. The essay also discusses some of the paradoxes of Cohen's key involvement in federal Indian policy and the contemporary importance of some of his legacies in American Indian law.