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4 AEG v¥. exp o-B a? z —— ao ee a owiw He ‘- . ' 7) id ~ fom . ‘ - = Lome _ wo me, hm s ¢ FOLLOWING fram the discentih re excerpts rd aninin EEE tty the U. §. Supreme Court 5 to 4 decision affirming the cantempt eonvictions of Frank Wilkinson and Carl Braden, who had been moto active in the movement seeking : fo abolish the House Un-Ameri- : ean Activities committee. The dissenting opinio, was, written by Justice lug lack and was concurred tr-ty-Chier Justice Farl Warren and Justice William ©. Dovugias. t * In my view, the majority by its decision totliy places the stamp of constitutional approval upon eo omrictiee as clearly in- consistent with the Coenstitution, and indeed with every ideal of individual! dreedom = fer which this countrs has oa jong stood, as any thet has ever came before this cout . T think u clear Involves ne than on attempt iy the Un-Ame- rican Activities Committee ta ise the contempt power of the House of Reme-entalice: as a weapon against these vin dare to criti- cize it, The clear thoet of jority decision’. oeeening abeli- eatinn of judicial pewer i. that the commiltee may continue do harass ifs epponeot., with abso tute impunity go long as the “pro- tections’ of Parenblatt (he Su- that this case Wire val wee Tales Pinte Ter eas the ma- } Court Thierens aoa rer preme Tlowsl any ‘ served. Foe first such . “protection” relates to the question of whem the committee may call before limitation it. Is ihere upon the power of the committee to subpocna and compel testimony from anyone who attacks it? On this point, the majority, relying upen the fact that at a previous hearing ihe committee was told by a paid informant that petitioner (Wilkinson) was a Communist and upon. state- any ments by the committee’s coun- | se] te the effect that the com- mittee had information that pe- titioner had been sent to Atlanta by the Communist party, says simply: “Tt is to be emphasized that the petitiancr was not sum- mened to appear as the result of an mdi crimine'te dragnet pro- cedure. licking in probable cause for betel that he possessed in- formation which might be help- ful te the subeommittee.” Significantiv, the majority does pot say just how much its “emphasis” on this point is werth, if anything. Thus, for all that appears, in the malority opinion, there is no assurance that the committee will be required ta produce any information at all as to the exercise of a mrern. ad oprere its subpocka and contempt powers. Assuming for the sake of argu- ment, however, that such a re- quirement will be imposed, it than haromes relevant to inquire LSUTRL QAR We a ae as to just how much this re- quirement will mean in terms of Fenuine protection for those wha in goad faith wish to criticize the commitice. Thal ix, lo my mind, satisfactavily settled by a look at the facts on this case, So far as appears from this record, the only information the committee Hod with reard to petitioner was the testimony of a paid in- formant at a previous committee hearing. The. only evidence ta the effect thai, petitioner was me ibes inairy Tally in fact a of the Com- Wlae —~ = Peso a ~ ie et eee oe a oe . athe -_ munist party thotuamerges fram that testimouy7ts a flat conclu- sory statement by the informant that it was so. No testimony as to particular happenings could rationally be based was given at that hearing. When this fact is considered conjunction with the fact that petiticner was not accord- ed the opportunity to cross- examine the informant of the protection of tne statule per- mitting inspection of statements given to the FBI hy paid inform. ants, it seems obvious to me that such testimony is almost totully worthless for the purpose of establishing prebable cause. in \ ¢ Tolson Parsons Mohr Belmont Callahan Conrad DeLoach Evans Malone Rosen Tavel Trotter W.C. Sullivan — Tata Dan Tele meu Ingram Gandy aw The Washington Post and Times Herald The Washington Daily News _- The Fivenina Star New York Herald Tribune New York New York New York Are New York The New York Times The Work The New ].cader The Journal-American —_ Mirror Daily News er ~—s OSL a id Wall Strert Joumal —— Dote __ ee PTGS