Felix S. Cohen (1907-1953)

Felix S. Cohen, the son of Morris R. Cohen, followed his father’s example in his life and career. Felix attended City College while his father was a faculty member in the philosophy department. Felix was active in extra-curricular activities, serving as editor of The Campus newspaper during his junior year and he wrote an editorial denouncing militarism on campus, particularly as represented by the Reserve Officer Training Corps. At the beginning of his senior year he continued to serve as editor of The Campus and he also became editor of the Microcosm. However, Felix was dropped from his position on The Campus by the managing board for the official reason that one student could not fill two editorships at once. The stir created the previous year by the editorials objecting to R.O.T.C. and the compulsory military training course written by Felix Cohen may have played a role in his dismissal from The Campus. In any case, Felix excelled in his studies, graduating with top honors in 1926.

Felix also enrolled in graduate studies at Harvard University and earned a doctorate in 1929, but unlike his father, he earned a law degree from Columbia University in 1931. He became an outstanding authority on Native American law and rights of minority groups. Felix served in the Department of the Interior from 1934 to 1948 drafting several pieces of legislation benefiting Native Americans and Japanese Americans and handling Supreme Court cases involving Native American rights. One of his special assignments to compile 5,000 statutes and treaties regarding Native Americans resulted in the Handbook of Federal Indian Law. Felix was also a visiting professor at two of the same institutions where his father had taught, at City College and The New School for Social Research, now the New School University, and in addition at Yale University and Rutgers University. Felix co-authored with his father Readings in Jurisprudence and Legal Philosophy and edited for publication some of Morris Cohen’s works following his death in 1947 including the autobiographical work, A Dreamer’s Journey, as well as Reason and Law, and American Thought.