Robert H. Jackson

“ If the Court agreed that an accused employee could challenge the designation, its effect would be only advisory or prima facie; but as I point out later, the Court refuses so to limit the effect of the designation. In view of these and other diversified opinions, none of which has attracted sufficient adherents for a Court and none of which I can fully accept, I shall state rather than argue my view of the matter.
1. The Loyalty Order does affect substantive legal rights.-I agree that mere designation as subversive deprives the organizations themselves of no legal right or immunity. ”

“ The right of individuals to assemble is one thing; the claim that an organization of secret undisclosed character may conduct public drives for funds or memberships is another. They may be free to solicit, propagandize, and hold meetings, but they are not free from public criticism or exposure. If the only effect of the Loyalty Order was that suffered by the organizations, I should think their right to relief very dubious.
But the real target of all this procedure is the government employee who is a member of, or sympathetic to, one or more accused organizations. ”

“ To be deprived not only of present government employment but of future opportunity for it certainly is no small injury when government employment so dominates the field of opportunity.
The fact that one may not have a legal right to get or keep a government post does not mean that he can be adjudged ineligible illegally. ”