Word: ervin
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After returning for brief law study at Chapel Hill, Ervin passed the North Carolina bar examination. But he decided that he needed more training and entered Harvard Law School as an advanced, third-year student. After earning his degree ('22), he then began an unusual career in which he never reached for opportunities but had them thrust upon him. While he was still at Harvard, some friends, without his knowledge, nominated him as a Democratic candidate for the North Carolina legislature. Although eager to begin his law practice, he grudgingly accepted and, to his surprise, won in his Republican...
After serving three scattered terms, Ervin left the legislature to devote full time to practicing law with his father. "It was from him that I got the feeling that the freedom of the individual-no matter how lowly he is-is fundamental," Ervin recalls. The elder Ervin was especially incensed at any hint of police brutality. Young Sam was reluctantly drawn away from law practice by a series of appointments that Governors or other officials persuaded him to accept: in 1935 as a county court judge, in 1937 as a superior court judge, in 1948 as a state supreme court...
During his six years on the North Carolina supreme court, Ervin gained a reputation for making sound judgments and writing clear, well-reasoned decisions. His aim, he says, was to "write decisions that didn't need interpretation," which are a rarity on many courts. Ervin is proudest of his role in the case of a black man who had been convicted of raping a white woman. Suspicious, Ervin pored over the trial's 1,200 pages of testimony, decided that the evidence was inconclusive, and had the man freed. The Senator still recalls what the relieved but resigned...
...pursuing his independent course in the Senate, Ervin has deplored wiretapping by federal authorities but has shown little concern about it at state and local levels. He drew the wrath of Women's Liberationists by fighting the women's rights amendment to the Constitution, terming it the "unisex amendment" and contending that it would deprive women of such present legal benefits as exemption from the draft and freedom from prosecution for non-support of children. Despite his church-going constituency, he has fought attempts to permit prayer in public schools. The Constitution, he insists, has wisely erected...
With little fanfare, Ervin has used his chairmanships to advance individual liberties. He inspired the revised Uniform Code of Military Justice, claiming that servicemen were subject to arbitrary discipline rather than justice. He pushed through a bill preventing any Indian tribal council from depriving an Indian of his constitutional rights. Ervin led a reform of the bail system, giving judges the power to release suspects too poor to pay bail but likely to appear for trial. He secured passage of a bill limiting the use of lie-detector tests in screening federal employees...