Watkins v. United States 1957
| Author | Daniel Brannen, Richard Hanes, Elizabeth Shaw |
| Pages | 74-79 |
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Petitioner: John T. Watkins
Respondent: United States of America
Petitioner's Claim: That convicting him for refusing to answer questions before a Congressional committee violated the U.S. Constitution.
Chief Lawyer for Petitioner: Joseph L. Rauh, Jr.
Chief Lawyer for Respondent: J. Lee Rankin, U.S. Solicitor General
Justices for the Court: Hugo Lafayette Black, William J. Brennan, Jr., William O. Douglas, Felix Frankfurter, John Marshall Harlan II, Earl Warren
Justices Dissenting: Tom C. Clark (Harold Burton and Charles Evans Whittaker did not participate)
Date of Decision: June 17, 1957
Decision: The Supreme Court reversed Watkins's conviction. It said Congress went beyond its powers by asking Watkins to reveal the names of former Communists.
Significance: Congress does not have unlimited power to investigate the private lives of American citizens.
During most of the twentieth century, communism competed with the American system of capitalism for world domination. Under communism, the government owns all property so that people can share it equally.
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Under capitalism, individuals own property and can accumulate as much as they want for themselves. Communists believe that workers under capitalism suffer to make business and property owners wealthy. Capitalists believe that people under communism suffer to make government officials wealthy and powerful.
In 1917, the Communist Party took control of the government in Russia. In 1922, Russia and other communist countries in Asia combined to form the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ("USSR"). The USSR's goal was to spread communism throughout the world, by force and violence if necessary. After World War II ended in 1945, Soviet troops helped communist governments take control in Eastern Europe.
In the United States, some members of the Communist Party wanted to overthrow the federal government and replace it with communism. Because the Communist Party was successful in the USSR and Eastern Europe, many Americans feared it would succeed in the United States, too. Communism became very unpopular in the United States. "Better
Joseph L. Rauh, Jr. defended John Watkins's right to privacy all the way to the Supreme Court, and won.
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dead than red" became a popular saying, referring to the color of the USSR's flag. If a person became known as a communist, he often faced threats and punishment from employers...
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