Ernst, Morris (1888–1976)

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ERNST, MORRIS (1888–1976)

With his colleague arthur garfield hays, Morris Ernst served as general counsel to the american civil liberties union from 1929 to 1954. Together with Hays and roger baldwin, Ernst fought to protect individual rights against government action. Although he excoriated both the Ku Klux Klan and the Communist party, he defended members of both organizations. He was a staunch opponent of government censorship and defended James Joyce's novel against obscenity charges in the Ulysses trial (1934). Ernst participated in a number of well-known cases, including commonwealth of massachusetts v. sacco and vanzetti (1921), hague v. cio (1939), and the Associated Press v. NLRB (1937), one of the wagner act cases. He wrote several popular books championing civil liberties.

David Gordon
(1986)