Robert Gensburg (3 September 1939 – 9 November 2017)[1] was an American lawyer working in the state of Vermont.[2]
Gensburg was notable for advancing education-funding reform in Vermont; and for volunteering to assist a captive held in extrajudicial detention in the USA's Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.
On January 6, 2000, the House and Senate of the Vermont legislature honored Gensburg with a joint resolution, sending him their best wishes upon his having been diagnosed with leukemia.[3]
State education funding reform
In 1997, as pro bono counsel for the ACLU of Vermont, Gensburg successfully led a lawsuit arguing that the state's school funding formula was unconstitutionally inequitable for children in property-poor towns. This case, Brigham vs. State,[4]
resulted in Act 60 (Vermont law), which established Vermont's equalized statewide property tax,[5]
intending to achieve a fair balance of educational spending across school districts, independent of the degree of prosperity within each district.
[6]
Guantanamo clients
The Montpelier Times Argus reported that Gensburg had great difficulty getting to meet his Guantanamo clients.[7]
There is no law at Guantanamo. There is nothing I have been able to do successfully to get the Army to obey its own regulations."
Gensburg reported on October 2, 2007, that working for a Guantanamo client has led to his firm's phone, mail and email being intercepted.[2][10][11]
A letter sent to their clients warned them of their belief the firm's communication was being intercepted, and stated:
Although our investigation is not complete, we are quite confident that it is the United States government that has been doing the phone tapping and computer hacking,
