![]() The legal and political machinery of the industrializing nation tended to favor corporations and stockholders over emerging labor unions and workers, and attempts to improve workers’ conditions were met with resistance. He took unpopular cases - representing labor-movement clients charged with violence, treason, and conspiracy - to give voice to “the weak, the suffering, and the poor” by defending their First Amendment rights to free speech, to a free press, and to petition the government (Darrow 1934: 32). The transition from a largely rural and agricultural society to an industrialized and urbanized nation created sharp contrasts between the wealthy and the new working-poor class.ĭarrow considered the conditions the poor faced in the new industrial society inhuman and unjust. ![]() He lived and practiced law during a period of unprecedented upheaval and profound change in the United States. (AP Photo, reprinted with permission from The Associated Press.)Ĭlarence Darrow (1857–1938) was one of America’s most famous and controversial defense attorneys, known for his role in the Scopes monkey trial of 1925 and other major cases of his day. Though best known for his role in the Scopes monkey trial, Darrow argued before the Supreme Court that the government's conspiracy and treason laws were unconstitutional violations of the First Amendment. Criminal defense lawyer Clarence Darrow is seen outside the White House in Washington, D.C., in this 1927 photo.
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