Repeal the McCarran Act

The recent refusal of the DuBois Club to register as a communist-front organization has brought to public attention once again the unnecessary and unjust presence of the Subversive Activities Control Act. Passed in 1950 over President Truman's veto as the first section of the McCarran Act, the law helped spawn the McCarthy era. After that first blazing notoriety, it has proceeded through its numerous litigations in relative quiet; but the law is far from dead.

Described by the Attorney General as a "registration" law, the McCarran Act has far wider ramifications. Organizations which are labeled "communist-action" or "communist-front" groups are required to register with the Attorney General with lists of their officers and activities. Since no organization would do this willingly, ethe Attorney General has the power to request the Subversive Activities Control Board to determine the status of an organization.

According to the law, one of the criteria for this determination is "the extent to which the positions taken or advanced by it from time on matters of policy do not deviate from those of any communist-action organizations, communist foreign governments, or the world communist movement." Penalties are heavy: Failure to register amounts to a fine of $10,000 for each day after the registration order.

Under these terms, the law is unworkable. True subversive groups can, as President Truman pointed out in his veto message, frustrate the law by dissolving the organization and establishing a new one with a different name and roster. As a result a great deal of time, effort, and money is spent trying to enforce an unenforceable law.

Even if the law were effective, there is reason to question its validity. Truman maintained that "it would put the government in the thought control business." Moreover, it almost certainly violates the Fifth Amendment, as subsequent court decisions have borne out. The guilt by association brandishment of radical organizations and publications as "communist-front" is a threat to the right of free speech. The law condemns groups which offer no real threat other than dissension, one of the jealously guarded rights of a democratic society.

The Subversive Activities Control Act, serves only to confuse and excite. Mark DeWolfe Howe '28, professor of Law, an executive committee member of the National Commission for the Repeal of the McCarran Act, calls the law "a terrible old act which has done nothing but harm." Even though the clause for individual registration has been thrown out by the Supreme Court, the law is still powerful enough to cause unwarranted injury. For this reason the McCarran Act must finally be repealed.