Lawyer for The Masses: The Role of Gilbert Roe in Masses Publishing Co. v. Patten

2018, Past Issues, Print, Volume 50 (2018) Issue 3 (Fall)
50 Ariz. St. L.J. 747 (2018). Eric B. Easton. Masses Publishing Co. v. Patten is justly celebrated for the courageous, if futile, opinion of Judge Learned Hand. The Masses itself is justly celebrated for its courageous, if futile, opposition to American involvement in World War I. Gilbert Ernstein Roe, lawyer for The Masses, who both influenced Hand’s decision and contributed to the magazine’s brief survival, has most unjustly never been celebrated and is all but unknown today. Who was Gilbert Roe? And what was his role in that famous Espionage Act case of a century ago? Full Article
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A Tale of Two Hands: One Clapping; One Not

2018, Past Issues, Print, Volume 50 (2018) Issue 3 (Fall)
50 Ariz. St. L.J. 831 (2018). Burt Neuborne. My thanks to the editors of the Arizona State Law Journal for organizing this symposium celebrating the 100th anniversary of Judge Learned Hand’s brilliant and courageous, if unsuccessful, effort in Masses Publishing Co. v. Patten to slow down the repressive train that was running amok over Americans who vigorously spoke out against America’s entry into World War I. While many have chronicled the major Supreme Court cases from Schenck to Gitlow failing to protect free speech during and after World War I, they usually don’t go beneath the surface of the Supreme Court to plumb the massive wave of repression that swept the nation in the summer and fall of 1917, fanned by jingoism, fear of immigrants, war fever, fear of communism,…
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