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Weekly Bulletin #1583 SUPREME COURT REFUSES-REVIEW OF CALIFORNIA VAGRANCY LAV The U.s. Supreme Court has refused to review a test case brought by'AcLu to 'test a California vagrancy law that defines a vagrant as'a "dissolute person". high court's action was. based on a procedural point. The The case involved Isidore Edelman, a Los Angeles political, economic, and. religious orator in Pershing Square, who was arrested in September, l949, on a com. plaint under the vagrancy statute. This statute imposes a fine and/or imprisonsent for an "idle, or lewd, or dissolute person". The jury returned a verdict of guilty: after having been charged by the judge to consider Edelman as "dissolute" if they' found him to be a lawless person on the basis of his having begged, or indulged in. indecent conduct, or used slanderous, vulgar, and profane ianguage. The AcLu Southern California affiliate argued before the Supreme Court that .the law is loose, uncertain, and vague, and therefore unconstitutional. But Mr. Justicc Clark, writing the 7-2 majority opinion, held that this defense had not been missal of the appeal by the California Supreme Court could have rested on adequate? state grounds, not involving the federal constitution. Justice Clark suggested, however, that a writ of habeas corpus might now be filed to test the constitutiona. of the state law. Justices Black and Douglas dissented, contending that the refusal of the. Pointing out that_the legislation was obviously unconstitutional, Justice Black.:'* insisted that "courts should bc astute to examine and strike down dragnet lcgislation used to abridge public discussion#x", pointing to the fact that the major reason for Edelman's conviction was the content of speeches he had delivered in public. BOOK NOTES THE HOUSE UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES COMMITTEE by Professor Robert K. Carr, 489 pages, Corncll University Press. This is another contribution to thc excellcnt series published under thc title feller Foundation. Prof. Carr traccs thc history of this controversial Housc committee since it staff, publications, the press' treatment of its work, and court rcvicw of its activities. Thc book ends with an cwaluation by Prof. Carr of the committee's published by the Columbia University Press. A valuable contribution to the literature on the problcm of discrimination. segrcgation. The author compares civil rights today and during the Rcconstructior Period and discusses thc rolc of. the Supreme Court in two.periods,_l868-1937.and Ncw York State Law against Discrimination; there is also a gencral discussion. control cf prejudice through law.