Communists: Guilty

The Justice Department had struggled through a dozen years of legal pulling and hauling to get the Communist Party, U.S.A., into Federal District Court in Washington. Then, last week, it took a jury of four men and eight women only 30 minutes to find the party guilty on twelve counts of violating the Subversive Activities Control Act of 1950. The charges centered on the party’s refusal to register as a “Communist action organization,” list the names of its members and reveal the sources of its funds.

Three times before, the party had carried to the Supreme Court its fight against the order to register. It argued that it was being deprived of its constitutional rights of free speech and association under the First Amendment, that its members were being asked to incriminate themselves by ‘fessing up to party affiliation. Last year the Supreme Court, by a bare 5-4 vote, ruled that the party must register.

Last week the outcome was a foregone conclusion. Both sides rested their cases after the Government had called but one witness, and the party none. The verdict subjects the party to fines totaling $120,000. But the total was only a beginning. The appeals will go on, perhaps for years. For if nothing else, the Communist Party, U.S.A., has shown itself notably adroit in taking full advantage of all the legal safeguards of a free society.