Harland Britz (1931-2021)
May 16—Harland Britz, who practiced law for a half-century, was a former assistant U.S. attorney in Toledo, and for decades defended individual rights as general counsel to the local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, died Monday in Autumn Care of Cornelius in North Carolina. He was 89.
He learned just weeks earlier that he had lymphoma, his son Benjamin Britz said.
Formerly of Toledo, Sylvania, and Ann Arbor, Mr. Britz and his wife, Judith, moved several years ago to Charlotte.
He retired from his general practice of law in 2006. He mostly represented clients in civil matters, including employment discrimination and wrongful termination, but on occasion handled criminal cases.
"He was a very sharp legal mind and composed and articulate," said his son Benjamin, a lawyer in Washington. "He brought a real statesmanlike approach to things. He was an old-fashioned gentleman."
Mr. Britz stepped down in 2003 as the ACLU northwest Ohio chapter's general counsel and from its board, on which he served for 38 years.
"I guess if someone would ask why I got involved, it's because I didn't like to see people get pushed around, regardless of what they believed in," Mr. Britz told The Blade in 2003.
His passion was free speech, said Sue Carter, a former board president of the Ohio ACLU who was long involved locally. That meant he defended Nazi sympathizers and others with offensive views, or worse, when authorities tried to limit their ability to speak publicly.
"It wasn't the person. It was the [First] Amendment," Ms. Carter said.
An early case, in 1964, had lasting impact. A group of socialists selling a political magazine on the streets of Bowling Green were arrested because they didn't have a sales license. He defended them in mayor's court, asserting that political speech required no license — and recalled in a 2002 interview for the Toledo Area Jewish History Project that his stance wasn't popular in Bowling Green. "They had everything but the torchlights and the pitchforks out for this trial," Mr. Britz said in 2002. The defendants were found guilty, a decision upheld on appeal. But the Ohio Supreme Court decided, 7-0, that political speech can't be licensed.
"That's an important decision in Ohio jurisprudence in the area of free speech," Mr. Britz said in the 2002 interview.
Mr. Britz in 1991 marked the 200th anniversary of the Bill of Rights by warning in a Blade column that those rights were becoming increasingly eroded — citing war-on-drugs and tough-on-crime proposals that reduce Fourth Amendment protections and the reluctance by courts to ensure a separation of church and state.
"The Bill of Rights was supposed to protect the minority, the unpopular, and the outcast," Mr. Britz wrote. "Recent developments reveal a viewpoint which is becoming more and more 'legitimate,' that the majority has interests which the Bill of Rights should not be permitted to dilute."
At the ACLU, he challenged young members to step up and be brave, Ms. Carter said.
"He was an icon to new ACLU members," she said. "I was in awe of him."
He could look stern, she said, but "he was fun and brilliant and inclusive. At ACLU meetings, he would make sure everyone got heard."
In 2001, Mr. Britz received a Pacesetter Award from the City of Toledo office of affirmative action. In 2003, he was honored as a distinguished lawyer by the University of Toledo Alumni Association. He received a Public Interest Law Award in 2004 from Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, Legal Aid of Western Ohio, and the Toledo Bar Association's pro bono legal services program.
He formerly served on the board of the Economic Opportunity Planning Association of Greater Toledo and on the executive committee of the Lucas County Democratic Party.
Harland Marshall Britz was born July 2, 1931, to Lillian and Morris Britz. He was a graduate of DeVilbiss High School. He received bachelor's and master's degrees in English from the University of Michigan — his master's pursued while he was in law school at U-M — and was an editor of the Michigan Daily.
He received his law degree in 1956 and started a practice with his father, who was a 1927 U-M law graduate.
He was appointed an assistant U.S. attorney in Toledo in 1961. He returned to private practice about two years later, forming a partnership with Charles Fuhrman and Marc Gertner. He later was in practice with Norman Zemmelman, who became a Lucas County Common Pleas Court judge, and Connie Zemmelman, who became a juvenile court judge.
Mr. Britz in his 30s learned to play cello and later played in the Jewish Community Center Orchestra. He was a former trustee of the Toledo Symphony and served on the board's executive committee. He was close to Serge Fournier, the symphony's music director for 15 years in the 1960s and 1970s.
"Harland was a deeply devoted member of the symphony organization at that time," said Robert Bell, Toledo Symphony president emeritus. "He loved music and made numerous contributions to help the orchestra survive far beyond financial ones."
Mr. Britz had been a member of Congregation B'nai Israel and of The Temple-Congregation Shomer Emunim.
He was formerly married to the late Nancy Gould Britz.
Surviving are his wife, Judith Mehring Britz, whom he married Oct. 6, 1977; sons Tony Jabon and Benjamin Britz; sister, Barbara Rosenberg; and three grandchildren.
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, burial services will be private. Arrangements are by McEwen Funeral Service at Myers Park in Charlotte.
