CLE Walking Tour: Coventry Village Edition
The only CLE you will ever attend that includes a presidential assassination, a falafel sandwich, and an obscene film.

Thursday, July 14, 2022 | 2:00 - 5:00 PM | 2.5 Hours of CLE In-Person Only | Meeting Place: The Garfield Memorial at Lakeview Cemetery: Located on Mayfield Road at the Corner of Kenilworth Road in Cleveland Heights

About this Program: 


Photo courtesy Library of Congress

This CLE begins inside the Garfield Memorial at Lakeview Cemetery.  The memorial is best accessed from the cemetery entrance located near the corner of Mayfield Road and Kenilworth Road in Cleveland Heights.  You can also program your GPS for:  41.508822, -81.587948

Unfortunately, the Garfield Memorial is not handicap accessible.

Halfway through the CLE, we will depart the Garfield Memorial, return to our cars and drive to The Centrum Theater, located at the corner of
Coventry Road and Euclid Heights Boulevard in Coventry Village. 

Metered street parking is available.  There are also metered parking lots available adjacent to the nearby Marc’s store, located less than a block away.

We’d like to begin on-time, so please plan to arrive at the Garfield Memorial early, especially if you are not familiar with the area.

Agenda:

Tour of Memorial to President James A. Garfield                                              

James Abram Garfield was the 20th president of the United States, serving from March 4, 1881, until his death six months later. A lawyer and Civil War general, he served nine terms in the House of Representatives, the only sitting member of the House to be elected president.  He was assassinated on September 19, 1881 by Charles Guiteau.

The Life and Politics of President Garfield - James Robenalt                                            

James Robenalt is an attorney with Thompson Hine and presidential historian.  He is the author of four books, including January 1973, Watergate, Roe v. Wade, Vietnam, and the Month that Changed America Forever, and Ballots and Bullets: Black Power Politics and Urban Guerrilla Warfare in 1968 Cleveland.  Together with John W. Dean, President Richard Nixon's White House Counsel, Robenalt created a continuing education program on the national level called "The Watergate CLE.”

Presidential Assassinations: Greg Truhan

Mr. Truhan served 22 years as a Special Agent with the United States Secret Service, retiring in 2008 as a Senior Special Agent. He was the lead Protective Intelligence Coordinator and Threat Assessment Investigator for the Secret Service’s Cleveland Field Office. 

Cast of Sondheim’s Assassins

Return to cars & drive to Centrum Theater in Coventry Village                                                                  

Historic Coventry Village & The Heights Art Theater

 
Photo courtesy of Larry Beam

Speaker: Kara Hamley O'Donnell

Ms. O’Donnell is principal planner for the City of Shaker Heights and a historic preservationist.  She did her master’s thesis on the history of Coventry Village.

The Coventry Village Special Improvement District: Bruce Hennes 

Mr. Hennes created the second Special Improvement Tax District in the State of Ohio.  He is also on the board of the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association and past president of Coventry Neighbors.

Jacobellis vs. Ohio & Other Obscenity Cases: Professor Andrew Geronimo

Prof. Geronimo is the director of the First Amendment Clinic within the Milton and Charlotte Kramer Law Clinic at Case Western Reserve University School of Law.  He has tried cases and handled appeals in the state and federal courts and his advocacy focuses on the First Amendment issues, particularly those involving speech and press rights.

Photo courtesy of Cleveland Historical

In 1959, Nico Jacobellis, manager of the Heights Art Movie Theater in Cleveland Heights, showed Les Amants (“The Lovers”), a film that featured a woman who leaves her husband and family for an adulterous affair with a young archeologist. The film featured an explicit love scene, which allegedly violated the Ohio State Code as obscene in nature and harmful to children. Jacobellis was convicted and fined $2,500 by the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas. The Ohio Supreme Court upheld the ruling.

At issue in this case was whether the state of Ohio could ban the showing of Les Amants under the First Amendment. Jacobellis appealed the ruling in April 1963 with lawyer Ephraim London, who specialized in film censorship cases. Assisting London on the briefs were Bennet Kleinman and Martin Garbus. Morton B. Icove, William B. Goldfarb, Herbert B. Levine, and Eugene Gold of the Cleveland Civil Liberties Union filed an amicus brief in the Eighth Judicial District Court of Appeals urging reversal of the decision. Later, Bernard Berkman and Jack Day of the Ohio ACLU, and Melvin Wulf of the national ACLU, filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court, also urging reversal.

The U.S. Supreme Court reversed the Ohio Supreme Court judgment on June 22, 1964 and ruled that the film was not obscene. Justice Potter Stewart, in his now famous statement, concluded: “Under the First and Fourteenth Amendments, criminal laws in this area are constitutionally limited to hard core pornography . . . I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case is not that."

Jacobellis description courtesy of ACLU of Ohio.

Adjourn to an optional dinner at Tommy's!

Need assistance? Please contact the CLE Department at cle@clemetrobar.org

Information to Note on Attending CMBA CLEs: 
After registering for this course, you will receive a confirmation email containing all information regarding location and/or directions to receive your Zoom link (if applicable). As a failsafe, you will also receive a separate email on the day of the seminar from CMBA staff containing the same logistical language regarding the program you registered for. If the option to attend this program in-person is available, you will be prompted to choose whether you will attend in person or remotely. 

Important
To receive CLE credit, you must:
Attending Virtually via Zoom
- use the unique Zoom link provided to you to verify your attendance
- view this program on your computer or phone (participating in this program by dialing in and listening to audio only is not an approved method of consumption)
- complete the LIVE polls that may be administered throughout the program (typically, these are administered during programs that exceed 1.0 hour - we will make it known if they will be administered)
- complete the survey that will be distributed following the seminar

Attending In-Person at the CMBA Conference Center 
- all programs that have an in-person component are offered at the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association's Conference Center at 1375 East 9th Street, Floor #2, Cleveland, OH 44114
-complete the survey that will be distributed via email following the seminar

Meeting Place: The Garfield Memorial at Lakeview Cemetery: 12316 Euclid Ave, Cleveland, OH 44106