HAYS, ARTHUR GARFIELD (1881–1954)

A leading defense counsel for and later director of the AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION, Arthur Garfield Hays devoted his career to protecting CIVIL LIBERTIES and FREEDOM OF SPEECH. Two of his books, Let Freedom Ring (1928) and Trial by Prejudice (1933), recount his participation in the Scottsboro cases (see NORRIS V. ALABAMA), the Scopes anti-evolution trial in Tennessee with Clarence Darrow (see TENNESSEE V. SCOPES), and on behalf of Sacco and Vanzetti (see COMMONWEALTH V. SACCO AND VANZETTI). Hays maintained a laissez-faire attitude toward government regulation of business and vigorously championed democracy, positions he elucidated in Democracy Works (1939).