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Cos 0-19 (Rev. 9-7-56) ee Blow Random Inquiry 9 Y The upreme Court on Monday powerfully re- asserted “its guardianship ‘of individual liberty. This reassertion was especially needed and long overdue in régard to the excesses of certain con- gressional investigating committees—most notably the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Im reversing the conviction of John T. Watkins fer contempt of Congress, the Court drew new and clearer boundaries for the application of congressional investigating powers. These boundaries might have been, and should have been, clarified a decade ago. In the Barsky ease, decided by the United States Court * of Appeals for the Disttict of Columbia in 1948, Judge Henry Edgerton set forth in a dissenting opinion many of the same strictures against the Un-American Activities Committee’s investigating methods that were made by Chief Justice Warren for the Supreme Court in the Watkins case—and made again, when Watkins was before them, by Judges Edgerton and Bazelon. Had the Supreme Court consented to review the Barsky case, in- vestigating practices might have been, brought within propér limits and much injustice to a vidual witnesses avoided. , “We have no doubt,” the Chief Justice said for the Supreme Court on Monday, ‘‘that there is no congressional power to expose for the sake of exposure. The public is, of tourse, entitled to be informed concerning the workings of fts Gov- ernment. That cannot be inflated into a general power to expose where the predominant result e2n only be‘an invasion of the private rights of individuals.” But from its very inception 20 years ayo, the Un-American Activities Committee re- garded exposure of individuals—and punishment of them through “pitiless publicity’"—as its prin- cipal and primary function. In short, it aimed to punish by investigation what the Cgnstiiuéen etorbidse Congress to punish by ‘legislation. re. bi) n/N) ~" ‘Yo > Trotter V4 Nease Tele. Room Holloman Gandy ly Wash, Post and Hi. Times Herald Wash. News Wash. Star N. ¥. Herald ___ Tribune N.Y. Journal- American N. Y. Mirror N. Y. Daily News N. Y. Times Daily Worker The Worker New Leader Date UNITS i