McCarran Internal Security Act

McCarran Internal Security Act

Other short titles	McCarran Act Subversive Activities Control Act of 1950
Long title	An Act to protect the United States against certain un-American and subversive activities by requiring registration of Communist organizations, and for other purposes.
Nicknames	Internal Security Act of 1950
Enacted by	the 81st United States Congress
Effective	September 23, 1950
Citations
Public law	81–831
Statutes at Large	64 Stat. 987
Codification
Titles amended	50 U.S.C.: War and National Defense
U.S.C. sections created	50 U.S.C. ch. 23, subch. I § 781 et seq.
Legislative history
Introduced in the House as H.R. 9490 by Pat McCarran (D-NV) Passed the House on August 29, 1950 (354-20) Reported by the joint conference committee on September 20, 1950; agreed to by the House on September 20, 1950 (313-20) and by the Senate on September 20, 1950 (51-7) Vetoed by President Harry Truman on September 22, 1950 Overridden by the House on September 22, 1950 (286-48) Overridden by the Senate and became law on September 22, 1950 (57-10)

The Internal Security Act of 1950, 64 Stat. 987 (Public Law 81-831), also known as the Subversive Activities Control Act of 1950 or the McCarran Act, after its principal sponsor Sen. Pat McCarran (D-Nevada), is a United States federal law. Congress enacted it over President Harry Truman's veto.

Its titles were I: Subversive Activities Control (Subversive Activities Control Act) and II: Emergency Detention (Emergency Detention Act of 1950).

The Act required Communist organizations to register with the United States Attorney General and established the Subversive Activities Control Board to investigate persons suspected of engaging in subversive activities or otherwise promoting the establishment of a "totalitarian dictatorship," either fascist or communist. Members of these groups could not become citizens and in some cases were prevented from entering or leaving the country. Citizens found in violation could lose their citizenship in five years. The Act also contained an emergency detention statute, giving the President the authority to apprehend and detain "each person as to whom there is a reasonable ground to believe that such person probably will engage in, or probably will conspire with others to engage in, acts of espionage or sabotage."

It tightened alien exclusion and deportation laws and allowed for the detention of dangerous, disloyal, or subversive persons in times of war or "internal security emergency".

The Act made picketing a federal courthouse a felony if intended to obstruct the court system or influence jurors or other trial participants.

Several key sections of the Act were taken from the earlier Mundt–Ferguson Communist Registration Bill, which Congress had failed to pass.

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