The ACLU of Connecticut mourns the death of Margaret Levy, an esteemed board member

The ACLU of Connecticut mourns the death of Margaret Levy, who died December 25. She was 80 years old.

Margaret was one of the longest serving – and most valuable - members of the ACLU of Connecticut board of directors.

For more than three decades, she scrutinized each meeting’s agenda and participated meaningfully its discussions. While the board often contained a fair number of lawyers, she was often the only criminal defense lawyer, and her perspective was important and her remarks insightful.

“I most valued that she expressed her views and didn’t hold back,” said former chairman Andy Schatz.

Her nearly 50-year career as a criminal defense lawyer was unusual. After graduating from the University of Connecticut School of Law in 1974, she worked several years for Community Partners in Action in Bridgeport, a non-profit that provides help and advocacy for people in the criminal justice system. Until her retirement in 2022, she was a court-appointed public defender, mostly in federal court, a single practitioner and one of only a few women who practiced criminal law full time. Margaret could have been successful in a law firm but instead preferred helping clients with fewer resources.

She won the respect of clients whose inclination was to distrust a public defender and a woman. “They recognized that this is a person who really cared and wouldn’t take the easy way out,” said ACLU of Connecticut executive director Davd McGuire.

One of her first significant cases occurred in the mid-1980’s when she represented a defendant in the Wells Fargo robbery carried out by the Macheteros, a group of Puerto Ricans fighting for independence.

She was a founder and 20-year member of the board of directors of Interval House, a shelter and advocacy program fighting domestic violence, and continued to support Community Partners in Action. She also volunteered at the Hartford Public Library helping immigrants prepare for citizenship exams. An intensely private person, she hated drawing attention to herself, and told her friends she did not want any public announcements of her death.

To honor her, the ACLU of Connecticut is planting a tree in Elizabeth Park, one of Margaret’s favorite places.