Sweezy v. New Hampshire

Background

In 1951, during a time of anticommunist fears, political blacklisting, and Senator Joseph McCarthy's investigations into “un-American activities,” the legislature of the State of New Hampshire passed the Subversive Activities Act. Provisions in the act defined a subversive organization as one that supported activities intended to change the constitutional form of government by force or violence. The act defined a subversive person as one who aided in the commission of acts intended to alter the constitutional form of government by force or violence. The act further declared subversive organizations to be unlawful and ordered them dissolved. Under the terms of the act, subversive persons were made ineligible for state employment. Teachers and others employed by an educational institution were subject to the law's provisions. All state employees and candidates for elective offices were required to sign statements that they were not subversive persons. In 1953, the legislature adopted a joint resolution charging the attorney general with responsibility for investigating subversive activities, identifying subversive persons in the state, and prosecuting those who were deemed to have violated the law.

Facts of the Case

Paul Sweezy was an avowed classical Marxist and socialist, an active member of the Progressive Party, and coeditor of an article condemning the United States' use of violence to preserve capitalistic social orders. Sweezy had delivered guest lectures to students in a humanities course at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) on at least three occasions.

Based on Sweezy's political associations and expression, New Hampshire Attorney General Louis Wyman subpoenaed him to testify on two occasions, January 5 and June 3, 1954. Wyman's questions at the January 5 hearing focused on Sweezy's lectures at UNH and his leadership role in Henry Wallace's 1948 presidential campaign on the Progressive Party ticket. While stating emphatically that Wyman's interrogation was unjustified and unconstitutional, Sweezy answered most of the questions honestly and directly, stating that he had never been a member of the Communist Party, had never knowingly associated with communists in the state, and did not advocate violent overthrow of the government. Sweezy acknowledged that he was a moderate socialist who believed in peaceful social and political change and that he once belonged to several organizations that were being monitored by the U.S. attorney general and the House Un-American Activities Committee. Invoking his First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and association, Sweezy declined to answer specific questions about Progressive Party membership, activities of individuals who had worked in the Wallace campaign, the content of his UNH lectures, and whether he believed communism to be superior to capitalism.

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