Court Opinion

ID: 9564605
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:04:05.316853+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:18:33.415474
License: Public Domain

WHITE, J.
— I dissent.
We are here confronted with the simple question of whether the Legislature may ordain that those who seek permission to use our public schools, erected primarily for educational purposes, may be required as a condition to the enjoyment of such use to declare that the school property will not be used for the commission of any act intended to further any program or movement the purpose of which is to accomplish the overthrow of the government of the United States or of the State of California by force, violence or other unlawful means, and that to the best of the applicant’s knowledge, the organization he represents is not a communist-action organization or communist-front organization required by law to be registered with the Attorney General of the United States. To deny school boards the right to make this inquiry is a radical departure from what this court held in Payroll Guar. Assn. v. Board of Education, 27 Cal.2d 197 [163 P.2d 433, 161 A.L.R. 1300], wherein at page 200 it said “The respondent board may not only make reasonable regulations with regard to the use of the school auditorium for authorized purposes but may deny an application for its use if (1) such use would further, directly or indirectly, the overthrow of the present government of the United States or any State, Territory or Possession thereof, by force or violence or other unlawful means, . . . .” And again in Danskin v. San Diego Unified Sch. Dist., *18328 Cal.2d 536, 553-554 [171 P.2d 885], we said “The state must be on the alert for any clear and present danger to the community, sensitive to the warning signals, the ambiance in which a forum is planned, the atmosphere that envelops it. It cannot look with equanimity upon those whose words or actions have already left in their wake a trail of violence.
“Always it must distinguish, however, between speech, no matter how unorthodox, that remains on a theoretical plane, and speech, no matter how skillfully intoned, that creates a clear and present danger to the community.” (Emphasis added.)
The statutes here in question are designed to protect the people not against what communists or kindred subversive organizations or individuals advocate or believe, but against what the Legislature has considered they have done and are likely to do again. Conceding that restriction on speech and assembly cannot be sustained unless the evil itself is “substantial” and “relatively serious,” or sometimes “extremely serious” thus creating what is commonly called “clear and present danger, ’ ’ nevertheless, as was said in Dennis v. United States, 341 U.S. 494, 509 [71 S.Ct. 857, 95 L.Ed. 1137], “Overthrow of the Government by force and violence is certainly a substantial enough interest for the Government to limit speech. Indeed, this is the ultimate value of any society, for if a society cannot protect its very structure from armed internal attack, it must follow that no subordinate value can be protected. If, then, this interest may be protected, the literal problem which is presented is what has been meant by the use of the phrase 1 clear and present danger ’ of the utterances bringing about the evil within the power of Congress to punish.
“Obviously, the words cannot mean that before the Government may act, it must wait until the putsch is about to be executed, the plans have been laid and the signal is awaited. If Government is aware that a group aiming at its overthrow is attempting to indoctrinate its members and to commit them to a course whereby they will strike when the leaders feel the circumstances permit, action by the Government is required. The argument that there is no need for Government to concern itself, for Government is strong, it possesses ample power to put down a rebellion, it may defeat the revolution with ease needs no answer. For that is not the question. Certainly an attempt to overthrow the Government by force, even though *184doomed from the outset because of inadequate numbers or power of the revolutionists, is sufficient evil for Congress to prevent. The damage which such attempts create both physically and politically to a nation makes it impossible to measure the validity in terms of the probability of success, or the immediacy of a successful attempt. ’ ’ (Emphasis added.)
The majority opinion places its imprimatur upon a decision that holds that the people of the State of California must open their schools as forums wherein groups aiming at the destruction of the federal and state governments by force and violence may assemble and wherein those in attendance may be indoctrinated with that philosophy in preparation for future violent action. With this I cannot agree. “It has been established by legislative findings and judicial decisions that the Communist Party is a continuing conspiracy against our government. [Citations.] ” (Board of Education v. Mass, 47 Cal.2d 494, 497-498 [304 P.2d 1015].) And the Legislature has declared that “communism is a political theory that the presently existing form of government of the United States or of this State shall be changed by force, violence, or other unconstitutional means, to a totalitarian dictatorship.1 . . (Ed. Code, §8455.)
*185The legislation with which we are here concerned does not restrain speech or assembly as such. Its manifest objective is the protection of our public schools from the commission of *186subversive acts therein, and asks the applicant for use of our school buildings only to state under oath that “to the best of his knowledge” the school property will not be used “. . . to further any program or movement, the purpose of which is to accomplish the overthrow of the Government of the United States [or of the state] by force, violence, or other unlawful means. ...” Unless the applicant has knowledge that the school property is to be used for the advocacy of subversive acts, what other reason would serve to deter him from signing the Statement of Information ? History, even in our own times, warns us that eternal vigilance is still the price of liberty and that a free people must not wait until “the plans have been laid and the signal is awaited” for violent action before taking steps to prevent the fruition of subversive propaganda. The statutes now engaging our attention do not proscribe the advocacy of abstract doctrine but are aimed at the teaching of concrete action for the forcible overthrow of the government. It therefore does no violence to due process nor to the principles enunciated by this court in the Danskin case, supra, relied upon by the majority opinion.
The statutes with which we are here confronted represent an effort by the Legislature of California to prevent the public school buildings in this state from becoming forums for the propagation and advocacy of acts of subversion, or acts intended to support subversive elements. This is well within the recognized right of government to protect itself from all enemies — domestic as well as foreign.
For the foregoing as well as the additional reasons advanced by Mr. Presiding Justice Fox, speaking for a unanimous court when this cause was pending before the District Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District, Division Two (American Civil Liberties Union of So. Calif, v. Board of Education, (Cal.App.) 5 Cal.Rptr. 215), I would discharge the alternative writ and deny the petition for a peremptory writ of mandate.

The Legislature of this state made the following finding in 1953 with respect to the world communism movement:
“(a) There exists a world-wide revolutionary movement to establish a totalitarian dictatorship based upon force and violence rather than upon law.
“(b) This world-wide revolutionary movement is predicated upon and it is designed and intended to carry into execution the basic precepts of communism as expounded by Marx, Lenin, and Stalin.
“(e) Pursuant to the objectives of the world communism movement, in numerous foreign countries the legally constituted governments have been overthrown and totalitarian dictatorships established therein against the will of the people, and the establishment of similar dictatorships in other countries is imminently threatening. The successful establishment of totalitarian dictatorships has consistently been aided, accompanied, or accomplished by repeated acts of treachery, deceit, teaching of false doctrines, teaching untruth, together with organized confusion, insubordination, and disloyalty, fostered, directed, instigated, or employed by communist organizations and their members in such countries.
“(d) Within the boundaries of the State of California there are active disciplined communist organizations presently functioning for the primary purpose of advancing the objectives of the world communism movement, which organizations promulgate, advocate, and adhere to the precepts and the principles and doctrines of the world communism movement. These communist organizations are characterized by identification of their programs, policies, and objectives with those of the world communism movement, and they regularly and con*185sistently cooperate with an endeavor to carry into execution programs, policies and objectives substantially identical to programs, policies, and objectives of such world communism movement.
“(e) One of the objectives of the world communism movement is to place its members in state and local government positions and in state supported educational institutions. If this objective is successful, propaganda can be disseminated by the members of these organizations among pupils and students by those members who would have the opportunity to teach them and to whom, as teachers, they would look for guidance, authority, and leadership. The members of such groups would use their positions to advocate and teach their doctrines and teach the prescribed Communist Party line group dogma or doctrine without regard to truth of free inquiry. This type of propaganda is sufficiently subtle to escape detection.
“There is a clear and present danger, which the Legislature of the State of California finds is great and imminent, that in order to advance the program, policies and objectives of the world communism movement, communist organizations in the State of California and their members will engage in concerted effort to hamper, restrict, interfere with, impede, or nullify the efforts of the State and the public agencies of the State to comply with and enforce the laws of the State of California and their members will infiltrate and seek employment by the State and its public agencies.” (Gov. Code, § 1027.5.)
The Congress of the United States, in adopting the Internal Security Act of 1950, declared the dangers of the Communist movement in the following terms (Act of Sept. 23, 1950, ch. 1024, tit. I, § 2, 64 Stats. 987; 50 U.S.C.A. § 781):
“As a result of evidence adduced before various committees of the Senate and House of Representatives, the Congress hereby finds that—
“ (1) There exists a world Communist movement which, in its origins, its development, and its present practice, is a world-wide revolutionary movement whose purpose it is, by treachery, deceit, infiltration into other groups (governmental and otherwise), espionage, sabotage, terrorism, and any other means deemed necessary, to establish a Communist totalitarian dictatorship in the countries throughout the world through the medium of a world-wide Communist organization.”
More recently, in adopting the Communist Control Act of 1954 (Public Law 637, ch. 886, 68 Stats. 775), our Congress expressed its awareness of the true nature of the Communist Party program and methods in the following findings:
“Sec. 2. The Congress hereby finds and declares that the Communist Party of the United States, although purportedly a political party, is in fact an instrumentality of a conspiracy to overthrow the Government of the United States . . . . ” and ‘ ‘ The Communist Party is relatively small numerically, and gives scant indication of capacity ever to attain its ends by lawful political means. The peril inherent in its operation arises not from its numbers, but from its failure to acknowledge any limitation as to the nature of its activities, and its dedication to the proposition that the present constitutional Government of the United States ultimately must be brought to ruin by any available means, including resort to force and violence. Holding that doctrine, its role as the agency of a hostile foreign power renders its existence a clear present and continuing danger to the security of the United States. . . .”