Noble purposes : nine champions of the rule of law / edited by Norman Gross ; foreword by Karen J. Mathis.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Gross, Norman.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Lawyers--United States--Biography.

Lawyers.

Rule of law.

History.

Justice, Administration of.

United States.

Judges--United States--Biography.

Judges.

Justice, Administration of--United States--History.

Rule of law--United States--History.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xi, 144 pages : illustrations, portraits ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Athens, Ohio : Ohio University Press, [2007]

Summary:

Throughout the history of the United States, the acts of a few individuals have shaped and strengthened the basic rights afforded by our legal system. The nine individuals whose deeds are recounted here have compelling stories, and though they remain unknown to the general public, their commitment to the rule of law has had a lasting impact on our nation.

Noble Purposes brings their stories to life. It describes the contributions of such individuals as James Alexander, the guiding and central force in the colonial-era trial of John Peter Zenger, which sowed the seeds for the American Revolution and the constitutional guarantee of a free press. After the founding of the new republic, Massachusetts chief justice Lemuel Shaw forged many precedents on critical issues facing the young nation.

In the 1870s, Hugh Lennox Bond stared down threats as judge in the trials of the South Carolina Ku Klux Klan. Clara Shortridge Foltz's fifty-year law practice encompassed many "firsts," including advocacy of public defenders in criminal courts. Early last century, Louis Marshall paved the way for the rights of minorities in America and abroad, while Francis Biddle, FDR's attorney general, sought to maintain civil liberties, during World War II, arguing against the internment of Japanese Americans and later serving as the American judge in the Nuremberg trials. Edited by Norman Gross, founding director of the American Bar Association Museum of Law, and written by many of the nation's leading legal historians, the profiles presented in Noble Purposes tell the stories of these and other individuals who stood firmly in support of the rule of law, often against great odds.

Contents:

Samule Sewall: defender of the rule of law? / John R. Vile

James Alexander: prophet of a free press / John D. Gordan III

Lemuel Shaw: the shaping of state law / Paul Finkelman

The courage of his convictions: Hugh Lennox Bond and the South Carolina: Ku Klux Klan trials / Kermit L. Hall

Clara Shortridge Folz: inventing the public defender / Barbara Allen Babcock

Noah Parden: in the eye of the storm / Mark Curriden

Race, party, class: the contradicitions of Octaiano Larrazolo / Phillip B. Gonzales

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

0821417312

9780821417317

OCLC:

70407757

Online:

Contributor biographical information

Publisher description