Scales v. United States - Significance, Supreme Court Reverses Course On Communism, The Smith Act

Petitioner

Junius Irving Scales

Respondent

United States

Petitioner's Claim

That the membership clause of the Smith Act, which makes it a crime to belong "knowingly" to an organization advocating overthrow of the government, violates the rights of free speech and association, as well as due process.

Chief Lawyer for Petitioner

Telford Taylor

Chief Lawyer for Respondent

John F. Davis

Justices for the Court

Tom C. Clark, Felix Frankfurter, John Marshall Harlan II (writing for the Court), Potter Stewart, Charles Evans Whittaker

Justices Dissenting

Hugo Lafayette Black, William J. Brennan, Jr., William O. Douglas, Earl Warren

Place

Washington, D.C.

Date of Decision

5 June 1961

Decision

The Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the membership clause of the Smith Act and Scales's conviction under its terms.

Related Cases

• Schenck v. United States, 249 U.S. 47 (1919).
• Dennis v. United States, 341 U.S. 494 (1951).
• Yates v. United States, 354 U.S. 298 (1957).
• Noto v. United States, 367 U.S. 290 (1961).

Sources

Levy, Leonard W., ed. Encyclopedia of the American Constitution. New York: Macmillan, 1986.

Further Readings

• Belknap, Michael R., ed. American Political Trials, rev. ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1994.
• ------. Cold War Political Justice: The Smith Act, the Communist Party, and American Civil Liberties. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1977.
• Kutler, Stanley I. The American Inquisition: Justice and Injustice in the Cold War. New York: Hill and Wang, 1982.