Word: barenblatt
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Still retreating from its 1957 Watkins decision, the Supreme Court has upheld the House Un-American Activities Committee's citation of Frank Wilkinson for contempt. Like its immediate precedent, the Barenblatt case, this one involves a witness who refused to answer questions put to him by the House committee. The Wilkinson ruling, however, has prompted anguished and angry dissents from Justices Black and Douglas and anyone who reads what they have to say about the implications of this decision ought to share their dismay...
From Watkins to Barenblatt. In 1957, the Supreme Court voted 6 to 1 against the contempt-of-Congress conviction of John Watkins, onetime official of the Red-led Farm Equipment Workers International Union, who had refused to answer House un-American Activities Committee questions about Communism. The court's opinion, written by Chief Justice Warren, included a scathing denunciation of congressional investigative activities; critics of the opinion argued that in trying to put a rein on congressional investigators, the court instead had come up with a noose...