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Walter Nelles AI simulator
(@Walter Nelles_simulator)
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Walter Nelles AI simulator
(@Walter Nelles_simulator)
Walter Nelles
Walter Nelles (April 21, 1883 – April 1, 1937) was an American lawyer and law professor. Nelles is best remembered as the co-founder and first chief legal counsel of the National Civil Liberties Bureau and its successor, the American Civil Liberties Union. In this connection, Nelles achieved public notice for his legal work on behalf of pacifists charged with violating the Espionage Act during World War I and in other politically charged civil rights and constitutional law cases in later years.
Walter Nelles was born April 21, 1883, in Leavenworth, Kansas, the son of George Thomas Nelles, a civil engineer. Nelles attended the prestigious Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire, in preparation for an Ivy League collegiate education. Upon graduation from Exeter, Nelles enrolled in Harvard University, from which he graduated in 1905 with a Bachelor's degree.
After graduation, Nelles taught as an instructor at the University of Wisconsin from the fall of 1905 to the spring of 1907. Nelles then left Madison to return to Harvard, receiving a Master's degree in 1908 before moving on Harvard Law School. He graduated from Harvard Law with an LL.B. in 1911. During the period of his graduate education, Nelles also taught as an instructor at Lowell Institute and Radcliffe College.
After passing the bar examination, Nelles entered private legal practice.
During World War I, Nelles was a partner in the law firm of Hale, Nelles & Shorr.
Nelles defended Communist Party co-founder Benjamin Gitlow for half a decade. In 1920, Nelles and Murray C. Bernay served of counsel to defend Gitlow in People vs. Gitlow on behalf of the National Civil Liberties Bureau (soon renamed the American Civil Liberties Union or ACLU), then Nelles and Charles Recht on appeal. From 1923 to 1925 on behalf of the ACLU, Nelles and a young Walter Pollak argued Gitlow v. New York before the United States Supreme Court against a conviction for "advocacy of criminal anarchy." The court upheld Gitlow's conviction but recognized that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment incorporated, which protected fundamental provisions of the Bill of Rights, including the freedom of speech. (New York State Governor Al Smith commuted Gitlow's sentence.)
Throughout the 1920s, Nelles participated in a loose partnership of left-wing attorneys, including Joseph R. Brodsky, Swinburne Hale, Carol Weiss King, and Isaac Shorr. The firm support legal investigations published in the 67-page Report upon the Illegal Practices of the United States Department of Justice by the National Popular Government League (NGPL); Swinburne Hale did a majority of the work on the report.
In 1920, Nelles served on the defense team of the five Socialist members of the New York State Assembly who were denied the right to assume the seats to which they had been elected by the Republican Speaker of the House Thaddeus C. Sweet, working in concert with members of both the Republican and Democratic Parties.
Walter Nelles
Walter Nelles (April 21, 1883 – April 1, 1937) was an American lawyer and law professor. Nelles is best remembered as the co-founder and first chief legal counsel of the National Civil Liberties Bureau and its successor, the American Civil Liberties Union. In this connection, Nelles achieved public notice for his legal work on behalf of pacifists charged with violating the Espionage Act during World War I and in other politically charged civil rights and constitutional law cases in later years.
Walter Nelles was born April 21, 1883, in Leavenworth, Kansas, the son of George Thomas Nelles, a civil engineer. Nelles attended the prestigious Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire, in preparation for an Ivy League collegiate education. Upon graduation from Exeter, Nelles enrolled in Harvard University, from which he graduated in 1905 with a Bachelor's degree.
After graduation, Nelles taught as an instructor at the University of Wisconsin from the fall of 1905 to the spring of 1907. Nelles then left Madison to return to Harvard, receiving a Master's degree in 1908 before moving on Harvard Law School. He graduated from Harvard Law with an LL.B. in 1911. During the period of his graduate education, Nelles also taught as an instructor at Lowell Institute and Radcliffe College.
After passing the bar examination, Nelles entered private legal practice.
During World War I, Nelles was a partner in the law firm of Hale, Nelles & Shorr.
Nelles defended Communist Party co-founder Benjamin Gitlow for half a decade. In 1920, Nelles and Murray C. Bernay served of counsel to defend Gitlow in People vs. Gitlow on behalf of the National Civil Liberties Bureau (soon renamed the American Civil Liberties Union or ACLU), then Nelles and Charles Recht on appeal. From 1923 to 1925 on behalf of the ACLU, Nelles and a young Walter Pollak argued Gitlow v. New York before the United States Supreme Court against a conviction for "advocacy of criminal anarchy." The court upheld Gitlow's conviction but recognized that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment incorporated, which protected fundamental provisions of the Bill of Rights, including the freedom of speech. (New York State Governor Al Smith commuted Gitlow's sentence.)
Throughout the 1920s, Nelles participated in a loose partnership of left-wing attorneys, including Joseph R. Brodsky, Swinburne Hale, Carol Weiss King, and Isaac Shorr. The firm support legal investigations published in the 67-page Report upon the Illegal Practices of the United States Department of Justice by the National Popular Government League (NGPL); Swinburne Hale did a majority of the work on the report.
In 1920, Nelles served on the defense team of the five Socialist members of the New York State Assembly who were denied the right to assume the seats to which they had been elected by the Republican Speaker of the House Thaddeus C. Sweet, working in concert with members of both the Republican and Democratic Parties.