Home > Great American Court Cases > In Re Debs

Legal Citation: 158 U.S. 564 (1895)

Defendant
Eugene V. Debs

Crimes Charged
Contempt of court and conspiracy.

Chief Prosecutors
John C. Black, T. M. Milchrist, Edwin Walker

Chief Defense Lawyers
Clarence Darrow, S. Gregory, Lyman Trumbull

Judges
Peter Grosscup, William A. Woods

Place
Chicago, Illinois

Date of Decision
12 February 1895

Decision
Guilty of contempt, no verdict on conspiracy.

Significance
In one of the most egregious cases of the courts siding with industry against labor, a federal judge issued an injunction ordering the American Railway Union to stop a strike against the Pullman Company and sentenced the strike's leader, Eugene Debs, to six months in jail for violating the injunction. The government then put Debs on trial for conspiracy but dropped the case...