Times correspondent, now with two Pulitzer Prizes to her credit, as well as a best-selling nonfiction book, Five Days at Memorial. His son, Marc Fink, a lawyer and the chief editor of the Middle East Policy Forum, lives in Cherry Hill, N.J., with his children Levi and Leah. Adriennne’ s son, Erick Ruby, is a property manager in Chicago. His entire family was on hand to see him honored. Fink said he has no plans on retiring soon. “Choose the job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life, ” he said. “That’ s me. I love what I do after more than four decades. It’ s a privilege and honor to defend the First Amendment. I consider it a sacred calling and I feel blessed to do it. ” CONSEQUENTIAL CASES Fink represented the Detroit Free Press in the unearthing of public records in the text message scandal that led to the conviction of then-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick for perjury and the eventual federal brib- ery and corruption charges that ended in Kilpatrick’ s conviction and 28-year prison sentence. The Free Press won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the scandal and reporters called Fink “a member of their team. ” This was the case that earned him the SPJ First Amendment Award. Fink said, “I’ ve had a lot of big cases and fun cases, but that was the most consequen- tial. ” Retired Wayne County Circuit Judge Robert J. Colombo heard the case. “One of the most important cases in my career was the case of a whistleblower suit in the case of Brown v Kilpatrick, ” he said in a video tribute. “This is a fine example of how the media and an attorney representing the media can expose corruption and pro- tect the public. ” Another of Fink’ s big cases involved suing the U.S. Department of Justice on behalf of the Detroit Free Press over post-9/11 secret closed courtroom immigration removal proceedings against mostly Middle Eastern men. “The public was barred, no informa- tion was allowed, and I filed a lawsuit, ” he said. He won in federal court, but the govern- ment appealed. Judge Damon Keith, the U.S. Court of Appeals judge in this opinion who ruled in Fink’ s favor, wrote some words in the case that the Washington Post immor- talized: “Democracy dies behind closed doors. ” In another big case, Fink defended film- maker Michael Moore in a libel suit filed by the brother of one of the Oklahoma City Federal Building bombers over his movie Bowling for Columbine. “The party who was suing us was perhaps … unhinged, ” Fink said. “I didn’ t want him coming to my office so I took his deposition in the federal courthouse where the person suing him, James Nichols, would have to go through metal detectors and be searched. ” When it was Moore’ s turn to be deposed, Fink hired security and metal detectors at an attorney’ s office in New York City, but Nichols never showed up. Fink won the case. A 10-YEAR BATTLE Fink successfully defended rap music icon Dr. Dre in a 10-year long First Amendment fight. The dispute goes back to Dre’ s infa- mous “Up in Smoke” concert with Eminem and Snoop Dog in July 2000 at Joe Louis Arena. The show featured a racy video deemed “inappropriate” by the continued on page 32 JANUARY 9 • 2020 | 31 “I think every news organization needs someone like Herschel … If we don’t have people like Herschel fi ghting for us, ultimately our freedoms are at risk.” — DETROIT FREE PRESS EDITOR PETER BHATIA Herschel Fink speaks to Senior News Director Mark Rochester and Reporter Joe Guillen in the Detroit Free Press newsroom.