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

Kevin Washburn (Arizona) has posted “Felix Cohen, Anti-Semitism, and American Indian Law,” forthcoming in the American Indian Law Review, on SSRN. Here is 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 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 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.