Mr. Justice DOUGLAS, with whom THE CHIEF JUSTICE, Mr. Justice BLACK and Mr. Justice BRENNAN concur, dissenting.
At the bottom of this case are this Court's decisions in Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Nelson, 350 U.S. 497, 76 S.Ct. 477, 100 L.Ed. 640, holding that Congress did not entrust to the States protection of the Federal Government against sedition, and Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483, 74 S.Ct. 686, 98 L.Ed. 873, holding that racial segregation of students in public schools is unconstitutional. I had supposed until today that one could agree or disagree with those decisions without being hounded for his belief and sent to jail for concluding that his belief was beyond the reach of government.
On June 17, 1957, we decided Watkins v. United States, 354 U.S. 178, 77 S.Ct. 1173, 1 L.Ed.2d 1273, defining and curtailing the authority of Congressional Committees who sought the aid of the courts in holding witnesses in contempt. We said in a six-to-one decision that 'when First Amendment rights are threatened, the delegation of power to the committee must be clearly revealed in its charter' (id., 354 U.S. at page 198, 77 S.Ct. at page 1184); that 'there is no congressional power to expose for the sake of exposure' (id., 354 U.S. at page 200, 77 S.Ct. at page 1185); that the meaning of 'un-American' in the Resolution defining the Committee's authority is so vague that it is 'difficult to imagine a less explicit authorizing resolution' (id., 354 U.S. at page 202, 77 S.Ct. at page 1187); that before a witness chooses between answering or not answering he is entitled 'to have knowledge of the subject to which the interrogation is deemed pertinent' (id., 354 U.S. at pages 208-209, 77 S.Ct. at page 1190); that in that case th Resolution and the statement of the Committee's chairman were 'woefully inadequate to convey sufficient information as to the pertinency of the questions to the subject under inquiry.' Id., 354 U.S. 215, 77 S.Ct. 1193.
Sweezy v. State of New Hampshire, 354 U.S. 234, 77 S.Ct. 1203, 1 L.Ed.2d 1311, decided the same day as the Watkins case, reversed a conviction arising out of a state investigation into 'subversive activities' where a teacher was asked questions concerning his relation to Marxism. The Chief Justice in his opinion stated:
'Equally manifest as a fundamental principle of a democratic society is political freedom of the individual. Our form of government is built on the premise that every citizen shall have the right to engage in political expression and association. This right was enshrined in the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights. Exercise of these basic freedoms in America has traditionally been through the media of political associations. Any interference with the freedom of a party is simultaneously an interference with the freedom of its adherents. All political ideas cannot and should not be channeled into the programs of our two major parties. History has amply proved the virtue of political activity by minority, dissident groups, who innumerable times have been in the vanguard of democratic thought and whose programs were ultimately accepted. Mere unorthodoxy or dissent from the prevailing mores is not to be condemned. The absence of such voices would be a symptom of grave illness in our society.' Id., 354 U.S. 250-251, 77 S.Ct. 1212.
'Progress in the natural sciences is not remotely confined to findings made in the laboratory. Insights into the mysteries of nature are born of hypothesis and speculation. The more so is this true in the pursuit of understanding in the groping endeavors of what are called the social sciences, the concern of which is man and society. The problems that are the respective preoccupations of anthropology, economics, law, psychology, sociology and related areas of scholarship are merely departmentalized dealing, by way of manageable division of analysis, with interpenetrating aspects of holistic perplexities. For society's good-if understanding be an essential need of society-inquiries into these problems, speculations about them, stimulation in others of reflection upon them, must be left as unfettered as possible. Political power must abstain from intrusion into this activity of freedom, pursued in the interest of wise government and the people's well-being, except for reasons that are exigent and obviously compelling.' Id., 354 U.S. 261 262, 77 S.Ct. 1217.