Arthur Garfield Hays

Who was Arthur Garfield Hays?

Arthur Garfield Hays was an American lawyer who became prominent in civil liberties issues; he served as general counsel of the American Civil Liberties Union beginning in 1920. He also took private cases and became wealthy representing powerful or controversial clients, participating in notable cases such as the Sacco and Vanzetti trial. In 1937, he headed an independent investigation of an incident in which 18 people were killed and more than 200 wounded in Ponce, Puerto Rico when police fired at them; his commission concluded the police had behaved as a mob and committed a massacre.

Hays wrote several books and essays about civil liberties issues, and in 1942 published his autobiography, City Lawyer: The Autobiography of a Law Practice.