Mundt-Nixon Bill

The Mundt–Nixon Bill was a proposed law in 1948 that would have required all members of the Communist Party of the United States register with the Attorney General.

The bill, also known as the "Subversive Activities Control Act [of] 1948," was first introduced in 1948 as H.R. (House Resolution) 5852, at which time it was known as the Mundt-Nixon bill. In his memoirs, Nixon described it as a bill to implement "a new approach to the complicated problem of internal communist subversion... It provided for registration of all Communist Party members and required a statement of the source of all printed and broadcast material issued by organizations that were found to be Communist fronts." Nixon served as floor manager for the Republican Party; Vito Marcantonio served as floor manager for the Democratic Party. On May 19, 1948, the bill passed the House by 319 to 58. Forty-six Harvard University professors publicly opposed its passage. (The Nixon Library cites this bill's passage as Nixon's first significant victory in Congress.)

HR 5852 opens as follows, with the aim of combatting "a world communist movement" (with the words "communism" or "communist" bolded to facilitate eyescan):

[H. R. 5852, 80th Cong., 2d sess.]

AN ACT To protect the United States against un-American and subversive activities. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SHORT TITLE

Section 1. This Act may be cited as the "Subversive Activities Control Act, 1948".

NECESSITY FOR LEGISLATION

Sec. 2. As a result of evidence adduced before various committees of the Senate and House of Representatives, Congress hereby finds that—

The Senate Judicial Committee held hearings at the end of May 1948 "the purpose of receiving testimony and opinions in relation to the constitutionality and practicality of H. R. 5852." The committee heard testimony from leftwing and rightwing political and union leaders, attorneys, who included: Father John Francis Cronin, William Z. Foster, John Gates, Rep. Leo Isacson, Kenneth Parkinson, Rep. J. Hardin Peterson, Donald Richberg, Paul Robeson, O. John Rogge, Norman Thomas, and former vice president Henry A. Wallace. The resulting report also included briefs, memoranda, letters, resolutions, and editorals from former US Solicitor General Charles Evans Hughes, Jr., John W. Davis, then-current US Attorney General Tom Clark, the ACLU, Louis Waldman, Morris Ernst, Lee Pressman, future Subversive Activities Control Board chairman Seth W. Richardson, Merwin K. Hart, the CPUSA, U.S. Senator Alexander Wiley, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, John Thomas Taylor, the Milwaukee Journal, the Milwaukee Sentinel, the Atlanta Journal, the New York Herald Tribune, the New York Times, the Brooklyn Eagle, and U.S. Rep. Samuel Pettengill.

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