Why I Will Not Register

Abstract

When the Supreme Court by a narrow vote of 5 to 4 upheld the registration provision of the McCarran Internal Security Act, traditional concepts of American justice were dismembered. Every high school civics student is taught that in our country guilt is personal; that no laws can be passed which "inflict pains, penalties and punishments without judicial trial." Yet if I were to comply with the registration provision I would, under oath, be registering as a "saboteur, spy, and foreign agent," for these are the legislative findings about Communist Party membership embodied in the McCarran Act.

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