3/22/06

Left to right: State Bar President Thomas Cranmer, Mark Sanborn, Judge Kenneth Sanborn, Sen. Alan Sanborn (photo by Naseem Stecker)

The occasion was a centennial celebration hosted by the Macomb County Bar Association (MCBA) February 28 in Mt. Clemens. State Bar President Thomas Cranmer took the opportunity to meet and congratulate the Sanborn family, especially the first recipient of the MCBA's Medal of Courage and Honor, Judge Kenneth N. Sanborn.

In 1953, Kenneth Sanborn, then a young Macomb attorney, and another lawyer, Charles C. Lockwood (now deceased), did what few attorneys were willing to do for fear of being branded subversive—they took the case of Milo Radulovich, an Air Force lieutenant who faced a military hearing that unjustly attempted to strip him of his commission because his father and sister were suspected communists.

The Radulovich case caught the attention of legendary journalists Edward R. Murrow and Fred W. Friendly, who featured it on a popular CBS program, striking a fatal blow to McCarthyism that was rampant at the time. The State Bar of Michigan recognized the importance of the case and commemorated it as the 26th Michigan Legal Milestone in 1998. More recently, the Radulovich story was featured in the film Good Night and Good Luck, which was nominated this year for six Academy Awards.

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