Justice Burton Chairs Finals Of Ames Competition Today

Harold H. Burton, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, will preside at the Law School's Ames Competition finale when the mythical court convenes in Langdell Courtroom at 8 p.m. tonight. The Honorable Harrie B. Chase of the U.S. Court of Appeals and Charles E. Wyzanski of the U.S. District Court in Boston will serve as Associate Judges for the debate between the Gardner and Pitney Clubs.

Those two clubs, each of eight members, are the survivors of a seven-term competition under the legal rules of "the Commonwealth of Ames," a theoretical state set up by the Law School to provide a uniform body of Law for purposes of mock trials and debates.

In tonight's debate, the Gardner Club will act as counsel for the defendant in the case of Local No. 861 v. John B. Dumont, a test case involving the constitutionality of a provision in the Taft-Hartley Act barring Union expenditures for political purposes.

The question at issue is whether such a prosecution can be enjoined by the Federal Government in a Federal Court. The facts are based on a case now under consideration by the Federal Courts of Connecticut, and is a result of a recent Supreme Court decision that it did not have to answer the constitutional question of whether a union could expend funds in a political campaign.

The case before the court of Ames, however, involves a privately-owned newspaper, while the Supreme Court

case involved a union paper.

The two oral advocates for the Pitney Club will be Ralph D. Buck, Jr., and Gurdon W. Wattlos '42. Their counsels on the brief are John H. Bass '42, Charles B. Gates, Jr. '43, Philip P. Green, Jr., Robert U. Holden '44, and Richard J. Jennings '40.

The Gardnor Club's oral advocates will be Douglas F. Stevenson and Nelson Taylor, with Charles H. Batlett, Jr., Marvin Borman, Harold L. Hitchens, Jr., Holmes E. Hobart, Robert H. Troescher, and Miles G. Wodeman as counsels