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Olin R. Moyle


Olin Richmond Moyle (1887–1966) was legal counsel for the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society from 1935 to 1939. He helped represent Jehovah's Witnesses in two cases before the United States Supreme Court, which set new precedents on First Amendment freedoms. A dispute with Watch Tower Society president J. F. Rutherford led to Moyle's expulsion from the religion. Moyle later sued the Watch Tower Society for libel over an article in its magazine, The Watchtower. In his later years, he became one of the leaders of the United Israel World Union, a movement that sought to convert people, particularly Christians, to Judaism.

Moyle began associating with Charles Taze Russell's Bible Students group about 1910. In 1935 Moyle, his wife and son left their home in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin and moved into the Brooklyn, New York headquarters of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society to serve as its legal counsel, heading its newly formed Legal Department. The department had been established by Rutherford to help Jehovah's Witnesses throughout the US mount court cases to defend themselves amid increasing opposition to their preaching and stance on flag salute. Rutherford and Moyle jointly represented the Watch Tower Society in various lawsuits. In 1938, Moyle won the Lovell v. City of Griffin case before the Supreme Court of the United States and the same year sent a letter to President Roosevelt condemning his support of "Fascist" Catholicism.

On July 21, 1939, Moyle wrote an open letter of resignation to Rutherford, protesting over conditions at "Bethel", the Watch Tower Society's Brooklyn headquarters, including what he described as ill treatment of workers, discrimination by Rutherford, the use and encouragement of "filthy and vulgar language" and a "glorification" of alcohol. Moyle said that Rutherford had "many many homes, to wit, Bethel, Staten Island, California" and deplored "the difference between the accommodations furnished to you, and your personal attendants, compared with those furnished to some of your brethren".


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