 In the late 1950s, he brought lawsuits contesting Virginia's Public Assemblages Act requiring segregation at public meetings.In addition to these cases Carliner represented "World Citizen" Garry Davis; leftist professor Staughton Lynd; New Orleans mobster Carlos Marcello; a vending machine company against Bobby Baker, a close friend and aide to Lyndon B. Johnson; and the Unification Church.Over a 50-year career, he also represented hundreds of ordinary immigrants in immigration proceedings.