Court Opinion

ID: 9449997
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 16:31:50.476038+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:32:06.258563
License: Public Domain

BAZELON, Chief Judge
(concurring).
Communist Party of United States v. Subversive Activities Control Board, 367 U.S. 1, 81 S.Ct. 1357, 6 L.Ed.2d 625 (1961), sustained the statutory requirements for registration of Communist-action organizations but did not deal with the relationship between a Communist-action organization and a Communist-front organization. Two questions now arise. (1) Is a front closely enough related to the world Communist movement to justify restricting first amendment rights because of the Communist Party’s support of the world Communist movement? (2) Must the question whether the Party is a Communist-action organization be re-litigated in a front case?
I do not contend that if the statute is properly construed its application to a front violates the first amendment. See my dissenting opinion in American Committee for Protection of Foreign Born v. Subversive Activities Control Board, 117 U.S.App.D.C. -, 331 F.2d 53 (1963), decided today. And I believe that due process does not demand re-litigation of the Party’s status in the present case because (a) the organization here affected by the Party’s status has been found to be substantially controlled by the Party, (b) the Party argued the question of its status in a 14-month 14,000-page hearing and the Supreme Court affirmed the Board’s finding, and (c) there is no indication that the organization here affected by the Party’s status could produce evidence which would throw additional light on that matter.1 The petitioner argues no other question. I therefore vote to affirm.

. We need not consider whether the Party’s status would have to be litigated in a proceeding to impose upon the petitioner or its members the civil or criminal sanctions of the Act.