Charles Evans Whittaker

“ We allow a man to go to prison for doing no more, so far as this record reveals, than challenging the right of a Committee to ask him to produce documents. The Congress had the right to get these documents from someone. But, when it comes to criminal prosecutions, the Government must turn square corners. If Congress desires to have the judiciary adjudge a man guilty for failure to produce documents, the prosecution should be required to prove that the man whom we send to prison had the power to produce them. ”

“ The presumption of innocence, deep in our criminal law, has been one of our most important safeguards against oppression. So far as I can find, this is the first instance where we have dispensed with it. We do so today by shifting the burden to a witness to show that he is not an officer or agent of the organization in question and that he is not able to produce the documents, without requiring any proof whatsoever by the prosecution that connects the defendant either with the organization or with the documents. ”

“ The subpoena called for 'all records, correspondence and memoranda' of the Civil Rights Congress relating to three specified subjects: (1) The 'organization of' the group, (2) its 'affiliation with other organizations,' and (3) 'all monies received or expended by (it) .' It would seem clear enough that the auspices under which the Civil Rights Congress was organized, the identity and extent of its affiliations, the source of its funds and to whom distributed would be prime considerations in determining whether the organization was being used by the Communists in the Detroit area. ”