Barsky v. Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York (347 U.S. 442)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided April 26, 1954 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 347 U.S. 442 · 74 S. Ct. 650
- Decided
- April 26, 1954
- Term
- October Term 1953
- Vote
- 6–3
- Majority author
- Justice Burton
- Issue area
- First Amendment
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Burton delivered the opinion of the Court. The principal question here presented is whether the New York State Education Law, on its face or as here construed and applied, violates the Constitution of the United States by authorizing the suspension from practice, for six months, of a physician because he has been convicted, in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, of failing to produce, before a Committee of the United States House of Representatives, certain papers subpoenaed by that Committee. For the reasons hereafter stated, we hold that it does not. In 1945, the Committee of the United States House of Representatives, known as the Committee on Un-Amer-ican Activities, was authorized to make investigations of “the extent, character, and objects of un-American propaganda activities in the United States.” In 1946, in the course of that investigation, the Committee subpoenaed Dr. Edward K. Barsky, appellant herein, who was then the national chairman and a member of the executive board of the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee, to produce “all books, ledgers, records and papers relating to the receipt and disbursement of money by or on account of the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee or any subsidiary or any subcommittee thereof, together with all correspondence and memoranda of communications by any means whatsoever with persons in…
Excerpt of a 60,220-character opinion. The full text and citation network load in the interactive viewer above.