Subpoenaed by the U.S. Civil Rights Commission last summer to answer sworn charges that they had interfered with Negro voting, 17 Louisiana voting registrars claimed the constitutional right to know the charges against them, challenged the protective secrecy given Negro informers. A three-judge U.S. federal court upheld the registrars, enjoined the commission from holding hearings. Last week the U.S. Supreme Court denied (7-2) the registrars' claim, and thereby made the commission's subpoena a powerful weapon in behalf of Negro voting rights. But two of the court's most outspoken liberals—Justices William O. Douglas and Hugo Black —vigorously dissented, in the belief...
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