The Communist Control Act of 1954 (68 Stat. 775, 50
U.S.C. §§ 841–844) is an American law signed by President
Dwight Eisenhower on August 24, 1954, that outlaws the
Communist Party of the United States
The Communist Party USA, officially the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), is a communist party in the United States which was established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Revo ...
and criminalizes membership in or support for the party or "Communist-action" organizations and defines evidence to be considered by a jury in determining participation in the activities, planning, actions, objectives, or purposes of such organizations.
Background
Created during the period of the
Second Red Scare
McCarthyism is the practice of making false or unfounded accusations of subversion and treason, especially when related to anarchism, communism and socialism, and especially when done in a public and attention-grabbing manner.
The term origina ...
(1946–1954), the act was one of many bills drafted with the intention of protecting the American government from the threat posed by international communists.
[Mary S. McAuliffe, “Liberals and the Communist Control Act of 1954.” ''Journal of American History'' 63.2. (1976): 351-67.] During this time, some argued that "the pursuit of subversive aims even by peaceful means should
ave beenoutlawed".
[Haag, Ernest van den. “Controlling Subversive Groups.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 300. Internal Security and Civil Rights (1955): 620-71.] Thus, many opposed
communism
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...
because of its explicitly declared and historically demonstrable goal to undermine
liberal democracy
Liberal democracy is the combination of a liberal political ideology that operates under an indirect democratic form of government. It is characterized by elections between multiple distinct political parties, a separation of powers into ...
. In the words of
Ernest van den Haag
Ernest van den Haag (September 15, 1914 – March 21, 2002) was a Dutch-born American sociologist, social critic, and author. He was John M. Olin Professor of Jurisprudence and Public Policy at Fordham University. He was best known for his contr ...
, there was "no place in democracy for those who want to abolish
teven with a peaceful vote".
Act
The Communist Control Act was originally proposed as an amendment to the
Internal Security Act of 1950
The Internal Security Act of 1950, (Public Law 81-831), also known as the Subversive Activities Control Act of 1950, the McCarran Act after its principal sponsor Sen. Pat McCarran (D-Nevada), or the Concentration Camp Law, is a United States fed ...
, which had sought to combat the spread of communism in labor unions.
Apart from its secondary focus which concentrated on the illegality of "communist front organizations" (i.e. labor unions),
[Haerle, Paul R. “Constitutional Law: Federal Anti-Subversive Legislation: The Communist Control act of 1954.” Michigan Law Review. 53.8 (1955): 1153–65.] the bill was drafted with the intention of tackling the root of pro-communist sentiment in the United States: the Communist Party. In its second section, the CCA of 1954 portrayed the American Communist Party as an "agency of a hostile foreign power."
The Party was described as "an instrumentality of a conspiracy to overthrow the government," and as a "clear, present, and continuing danger to the security of the United States."
The Act made membership to the Communist Party a criminal act and stipulated that all Party members would be sanctioned with up to a $10,000 fine or imprisonment for five years or both if they failed to register with the U.S. Attorney General as such. Additionally, according to the third section, the Communist Party would be deprived of "the rights, privileges, and immunities of a legal body."
The Internal Security Act of 1950 had defined two types of "communist organizations." Senator Butler later proposed a bill aimed at the removal of Communists from leadership positions in labor unions, adding a third class, that of "communist-infiltrated organizations." Afterwards, Democratic Senator Humphrey put forward a substitute to that bill with the intention of directly tackling the "root of evil," the Communist Party members.
[“The Communist Control Act of 1954.” The Yale Law Journal. 64.5 (1955): 712-65.] Through an amendment by Senator Daniel, both the Butler and Humphrey bills were merged into one, winning unanimous approval in the Senate from both Democrats and Republicans.
Support
The overwhelming support provided by the
liberals has attracted much attention from historians such as Mary McAuliffe (). McAuliffe argues that the perceived gravity of the threat of Communism during the Cold War led some liberals to ignore the fact that the CCA suspended the citizenship rights of the Communist Party members. Most liberal Democrats did not even offer a token opposition to the Act; on the contrary, they ardently supported it. McAuliffe further acknowledges that the Act "served to avert possible disaster for individual politicians" who feared being labeled as Communists for their left-minded ideas. In the words of Senator Humphrey, "the amendment
as soughtto remove any doubt in the Senate as to where
emocrats and liberals toodon the issue of Communism."
An article published in the ''Michigan Law Review'' in 1955 suggested that the Communist Control Act was a "dramatic political gesture" rather than a genuine attempt to "kill Communism at its root."
McAuliffe underlines the anomalies surrounding the Act; in particular, the Act was unorthodox since it bypassed the usual process of committee hearings and deliberations and was immediately introduced to the Senate floor. The Act has no recorded legislated history, undoubtedly because it was rush-printed in the early hours of the morning. In 1955, an outraged
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...
characterized it as "a mockery of...
mericans’most basic constitutional guarantees."
Mary S. McAuliffe commented that use of the Communist Control Act of 1954 was an illustration of "how deeply
McCarthyism penetrated American society."
Controversy
There was much controversy surrounding the Act. The
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...
and its Director,
J. Edgar Hoover
John Edgar Hoover (January 1, 1895 – May 2, 1972) was an American law enforcement administrator who served as the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He was appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation ...
, opposed the bill on the count that it would have forced the Communist movement underground.
In addition, the ''Michigan Law Review'' argued that the politically charged Act was plagued by a number of constitutional problems which would have undermined its effectiveness.
The ''
Yale Law Journal'' lauded the Act as the "most direct statutory attack on internal communism yet undertaken
y 1955by Congress,"
but stressed the "haste and confusion of the Act’s passage" which led to many "vague and ambiguous provisions."
The incongruity of its provisions, a grave constitutional defect, was in part attributed to obscure language. For example, the nature of the "rights, privileges, and immunities" to be terminated by the Act was never explicitly stated as relating to state or federal jurisdiction. Also, the ''Yale Law Journal'' underlined a number of instances during which a literal interpretation of key passages would have caused entire sections to fall because of the use of comprehensive, unspecific language.
McAuliffe notes that, because of these complications, the Act was never "used as a major weapon in the legislative arsenal against Communism," apart from two minor cases in the states of New York and New Jersey.
Other
The House of Representatives also made some additions to the bill, notably a section which listed the criteria for "determining what constitut
dmembership in the Party and related organizations."
Further history
In 1973, a federal district court in Arizona decided that the act was unconstitutional, and Arizona could not keep the party off the ballot in the 1972 general election
''Blawis v. Bolin''. In 1961, the
Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the act did not bar the party from participating in New York's unemployment insurance system (''
Communist Party v. Catherwood'')
See also
*
Communist registration acts
*
Espionage Act of 1917
The Espionage Act of 1917 is a United States federal law enacted on June 15, 1917, shortly after the United States entered World War I. It has been amended numerous times over the years. It was originally found in Title 50 of the U.S. Code (War ...
*
Mitchell v. Donovan
*
Anti-communism
Anti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when the United States and the ...
*
Criticisms of communism
*
McCarthyism
Notes
External links
Full text of the Communist Control Act of 1954
{{Authority control
1954 in law
Anti-communism in the United States
McCarthyism
United States federal criminal legislation
83rd United States Congress
Political repression in the United States