''Watkins v. United States'', 354 U.S. 178 (1957), is a decision of the

Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. Federal tribunals in the United States, federal court cases, and over Stat ...

that held that the power of the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is Bicameralism, bicameral, composed of a lower body, the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives, and an upper body, ...

is not unlimited in conducting investigations and that nothing in the

United States Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven articles, it delineates the natio ...

gives it the authority to expose the private affairs of individuals.

Background

John Thomas Watkins, a labor union official from

Rock Island, Illinois Rock Island is a city in and the county seat of Rock Island County, Illinois, United States. The original Rock Island, from which the city name is derived, is now called Arsenal Island. The population was 37,108 at the 2020 census. Located on t ...

, was convicted of contempt of Congress, a misdemeanor under , for failing to answer questions posed by members of Congress during a hearing held by a subcommittee of the House of Representatives Committee on Un-American Activities on April 29, 1954. Watkins was born in July 1910 and ended his formal education in the eighth grade. At the time of his testimony he had four children and was working on behalf of the

United Auto Workers The International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, better known as the United Auto Workers (UAW), is an American Labor unions in the United States, labor union that represents workers in the Un ...

(UAW) to unionize workers at a division of Firestone Tire and Rubber in Illinois. The UAW underwrote his legal expenses. Watkins was asked to name people he knew to be members of the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of '' The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engel ...

. Watkins told the subcommittee that he did not wish to answer such questions and that they were outside the scope of the subjects on which he was summoned to testify and of the committee's jurisdiction. He said:FindLaw
John Watkins v. United States 354 U.S. 178 (1957)
/ref> His conviction carried a fine of $1000 and a one-year suspended prison sentence. Watkins first won a 3–2 decision on appeal to the

US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (in case citations, D.C. Cir.) is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals. It has the smallest geographical jurisdiction of any of the U.S. federal appellate cou ...

but then lost, 6–2, when that court heard the case ''en banc''. The Supreme Court heard arguments on March 7, 1957 and announced its decision on June 17, 1957.

Decision

The Supreme Court decided 6–1 to overturn Watkins' conviction.

Chief Justice Earl Warren Earl Warren (March 19, 1891 – July 9, 1974) was an American attorney, politician, and jurist who served as the 14th Chief Justice of the United States from 1953 to 1969. The Warren Court presided over a major shift in American constitution ...

wrote for the majority. Warren noted that it is an offense for a witness to refuse to answer any question "pertinent to the question under inquiry" in testifying before a Congressional committee, but he wrote that the Court was unable to ascertain the nature of the Congressional inquiry with reasonable precision: The ''New York Times'' commented: "The Supreme Court has placed fundamental restrictions on a Congressional investigatory power that in recent years has been asserted as all but limitless."''New York Times''
"Inquiry Reform Seen Inevitable," June 19, 1957
accessed June 16, 2012 Senators James Eastland and William E. Jenner, who played principal roles in investigating left-wing activities, issued a statement accusing the Court of contributing to "the trend of the past year of undermining our existent barriers against Communist subversion." The decision's impact was limited in that the Court limited the application of the principles it espoused in ''Watkins''.Arthur J. Sabin, ''In Calmer Times: The Supreme Court and Red Monday'' (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999), 156

References

External links

* {{US1stAmendment, association, state=expanded United States Supreme Court cases United States Supreme Court cases of the Warren Court United States freedom of association case law 1957 in United States case law American Civil Liberties Union litigation Communist Party USA litigation McCarthyism History of the United Auto Workers

Background

Decision

See also

References

External links