The Subversive Activities Control Board (SACB) was a United States federal committee. It was the subject of a landmark

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...

decision of the Warren Court, '' Communist Party v. Subversive Activities Control Board'', 351 U.S. 115 (1956), that would lead to later decisions that rendered the Board powerless. The board was founded on November 1, 1950, pursuant to the

McCarran Internal Security Act 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 f ...

. The original 5 members of the panel were Seth W. Richardson of Washington, D.C., the Board's Chairman, along with Peter Campbell Brown of New York, Charles M. LaFollette of Indiana, David J. Coddaire of Massachusetts, and Dr. Kathryn McHale of Indiana. Mr. Brown later served as Chairman in 1952 and 1953. The SACB was empowered to order the registration of organizations that it found to be "Communist fronts", "Communist action" groups or "Communist infiltrated" groups: In 1955, President Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed former

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...

Governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

Francis Cherry as SACB director. The appointment was continued by Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. However, the 1965 U.S. Supreme Court '' Albertson v. Subversive Activities Control Board'' case eliminated the SACB's authority to enforce Communist registration requirements. The Subversive Activities Control Board was officially abolished by Congress in 1972.

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