Erwin N. Griswold, 90, who as U.S. solicitor general, dean of the Harvard Law School and a champion of constitutional rights was one of the foremost figures in American law in this century, died yesterday at Massachusetts General Hospital in Cambridge.
As solicitor general under Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard M. Nixon, Mr. Griswold argued in the Supreme Court in cases in which the government had an interest. After leaving the government, he joined the law firm of Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue in Washington and continued his practice before the court, remaining active until recently.
Harvard Law School, where he was a faculty member for 33 years and dean for 21, said last night that during his lifetime, Mr. Griswold had argued more cases before the high court -- more than 100 -- than any living lawyer. Only John W. Davis, solicitor general from 1913 to 1918, argued more.
Mr. Griswold "was an extraordinary man, a wonderfully gifted lawyer and truly an American legal institution," said Patrick F. McCartan, managing partner of Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue.
One of Mr. Griswold's major contributions to American public life came in the mid-1950s, a time when a national zeal for ferreting out Communists in inquiries such as those led by Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy (R-Wis) raised fears that constitutional guarantees were being ignored.
In that climate, Mr. Griswold wrote "The Fifth Amendment Today," which was published in 1955 and "was very, very important in combating McCarthyism," said Clark Byse, who served at Harvard Law School with Mr. Griswold.
According to reviewers, the book appeared at a time when many Americans seemed impatient with due process and interpreted use of the Fifth Amendment as meriting the same sanctions as would a confession. But, they said, Mr. Griswold upheld due process and the right not to be punished severely for invoking Constitutional safeguards.
Byse said it was particularly important that these views were expressed "in a very thoughtful way" by the Republican dean of Harvard Law school. In a speech Mr. Griswold made at Mount Holyoke College on March 24, 1954, he said Americans "should have to bestir ourselves from time to time to protect our liberties as our ancestors did on many occasions." Otherwise, he said, "we may simply fritter them away."
Erwin Nathaniel Griswold was born in East Cleveland on July 14, 1904. He received a bachelor's degree from Oberlin College and law degrees from Harvard. After admission to the bar in 1929, he practiced with his father's Cleveland firm but soon joined the solicitor general's office in Washington, specializing in taxation. He joined the Harvard law faculty in 1934 and became dean of the law school in 1946.
"Erwin Griswold was one of the giants of American legal education and the American legal profession," said Robert C. Clark, Harvard Law School's current dean. "He was a person of tremendous integrity and knowledge and ... a premiere model of what a lawyer should be."
In 1967, Mr. Griswold left Harvard to become solicitor general. Continuing in that post under Nixon, Mr. Griswold argued unsuccessfully in behalf of the government in the Pentagon Papers case.
In a winning case in the late 1960s that gave rise to broadcasting's "fairness doctrine," he argued for the view that government could require airing of opposing viewpoints and responses to personal attacks. Mr. Griswold lived in Belmont, Mass., and Washington. He served on the U.S. Civil Rights Commission under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson.
In addition to his daughter, survivors include his wife of 63 years, Harriet Allena; a son, William of Belmont; a brother, James, of Exeter, N.H.; a sister, Hope Curfman of Denver; five grandchildren; and a great-grandchild.
