National Affairs: Not Qualified

Two key principles of the Taft-Hartley Act were upheld by a special three-judge court† in Washington last week. The court agreed that Congress may require unions to file membership and financial reports.

By a 2-to-1 vote, it also decided that the Taft-Hartley law was within the Constitution in requiring that, before a union can take a case to the National Labor Relations Board, its officers must swear that they are not Communists. The majority held that Congress has the right to prescribe qualifications for those who ask the “privilege” of acting for workers as their exclusive bargaining agents. For good and obvious reasons, said the court, Congress had decided that Communists do not qualify.

† Set up to expedite questions of constitutionality directly to the Supreme Court.