The Committee's Critic

A political activist was travelling the country campaigning to abolish a congressional committee that hunted communists. The committee subpoenaed him to a hearing and asked whether he was a member of the Communist Party. He refused to answer. He did not claim the privilege against self-incrimination. Instead he argued the committee had no constitutional power to ask, and that it had subpoenaed him only to punish him for criticising it. Refusing to answer a proper question is a crime.