Editorial from the
Boston Eranscript
324 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON 8, MASS.
MONDAY, JANUARY 23, 1928
A Widow's Duy in Court
The Boston Legal Aid Society recently
gained a pleasing distinetion, Wher
before
the Supreme Court of the United States.
This constitutes the first instance in his-
when any legal aid organization
cause to the nation's
tory
ever has carried a
highest tribunal. The case, one is bound.
to note, did not orignate in Massachi-
doorstep from far-away Utah, and on this
account probably would not-and should
not-have been taken up by the Bociety
had not one or two public-spirited Bos-
tonians personally guaranteed any spe-
clal expense involved. Fairness to the
e
tdthis distant origin makes
fullsr
the case only the more notable, it seems
to us, as an example of valiant effort to
maintain, in actual practice, the great
American principle of equal justice to
all, rich and poor allke.
Ald Society's client,
widow, had been sustained by the Su-
The
Legal
a
denit uder the tndustrial accident
law, following the death of her husband.
The insurer appealed this decision to the
United States Supreme Court. No doubt
the insurer may have been well justified
in so doing. The fact remained, however,
that the widow was without mes
and the mere act of appeal risked the
chance, therefore, that her case would
go by default. So matters stood when
the co-operation of the Boston Legal Aid
Society was asked and secured. The de-
cision of the high court of course is not
own
months. But a gallant flght has been
Inade on the defendant's behalf, in the
hands of able counsel.
the Boston Legal Aid Soclety has impor-
tantly helped to maintain the cardinal
By this action
element in the structure of effective
democracy-namely, that all eitizens are
entitled to the equal protection of the
laws, and to their day in court for the
rightly should be, even if the battle has
to be carried up to the highest court of
the nation.
