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12 U. Pitt. L. Rev. 481 (1950-1951)
The Internal Security Act of 1950

handle is hein.journals/upitt12 and id is 485 raw text is: UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH LAW REVIEW VOLUME 12 SUMMER, 1951 NUMBER 4 THE INTERNAL SECURITY ACT OF 1950 Patrick A. McCarran* During December of 1950 a phantom sniper in the suburbs of Philadel- phia terrorized the entire populace by indiscriminately shooting at anyone who came within range. Headlines read: Only Terror Walks The Streets Where Oak Lane Sniper Lurks. One man had completely panicked the entire vicinity, killed at least one person, wounded several others, and had successfully eluded the network of policemen and civilians searching for him. Multiply this incident more than 50,000 times, and add to it the destruc- tion of our transportation systems, our public utilities, and our manufactur- ing plants by saboteurs-then you begin to approximate the danger with which this country is faced should the Kremlin move to action our more than 50,000 Communist party members and their thousands of willing friends. It is my purpose to discuss in this paper the principal provisions of the Internal Security Act of 1950,1 to recount the conditions sought to be remedied, the inadequacy or total absence of prior law, and the manner in which this Act attempts to remedy the problems presented. Allow me to point out that this Act stems from an omnibus bill2 which integrated, with some modification, the provisions of several bills3 relating to internal security which, for the most part, had previously been reported favorably by the Senate and House Committees on the Judiciary. I shall discuss the *A.B., University of Nevada (1901); A.M. (1915); LL.D. (1945); LL.D., Georgetown University (1943); United States Senator from Nevada since 1933; Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee; Associate Justice, Supreme Court of Nevada (1913-17) ; Chief Justice (1917-18). 1. Pub. L. No. 831, 81st Cong., 2d Sess. (Sept. 23, 1950), hereafter referred to as the Internal Security Act or Act. 2. S. 4037, 81st Cong., 2d Sess. (1950). 3. S. 2311, Registration and Prohibitions; S. 595, Reinforcement of Espionage Laws; S. 1832, Exclusion and Deportation of Subversive Aliens; H.R. 10, Super- vision and Deportation of Deportable Aliens; S. 3455, Immigration and Naturali- zation; S. 1681, Prohibiting the Picketing of Courts; and S. 4130, Emergency De- tention Provisions. (481)

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