Editing Lysander Spooner (section)

===Legal career===
Spooner's activism began with his career as a lawyer, which itself violated Massachusetts law.{{Sfn|Smith|1992|p=viii}} Spooner had studied law under the prominent lawyers, politicians and abolitionists [[John Davis (Massachusetts governor)|John Davis]], later [[Governor of Massachusetts]] and Senator; and [[Charles Allen (Massachusetts politician)|Charles Allen]], state senator and Representative from the [[Free Soil Party]].{{Sfn|Shone|2010|p=viii}} However, he never attended college.{{Sfn|Barnett|1999|pp=66-67}} According to the laws of the state, college graduates were required to study with an attorney for three years while non-graduates like Lysander would be required to do so for five years.{{Sfn|Barnett|1999|pp=66-67}}

With the encouragement from his legal mentors, Spooner set up his practice in [[Worcester, Massachusetts]], after only three years, defying the courts.{{Sfn|Barnett|1999|pp=66-67}} He regarded three-year privilege for college graduates as a state-sponsored discrimination against the poor and also providing a monopoly income to those who met the requirements. He argued that "no one has yet ever dared advocate, in direct terms, so monstrous a principle as that the rich ought to be protected by law from the competition of the poor".{{Sfn|Barnett|1999|pp=66-67}} In 1836, the legislature abolished the restriction.{{Sfn|Barnett|1999|pp=66-67}} He opposed all licensing requirements for lawyers.{{Sfn|Shively|1971|loc=Chapter 4}}

After a disappointing legal career and a failed career in real estate speculation in [[Ohio]], Spooner returned to his father's farm in 1840.{{Sfn|Barnett|1999|pp=66-67}}