Scales v. United States 367 U.S. 203 (1961)
SCALES v. UNITED STATES 367 U.S. 203 (1961)
The Supreme Court, always careful to avoid declaring the Smith Act unconstitutional, instead employed statutory interpretation to emasculate its provisions. Here the Court held that the act's clause banning "membership" in certain organizations applied only to members active in the organization's affairs, knowing that its purpose was to bring about the overthrow of the government by force and violence as speedily as circumstances would permit, and with the specific purpose to bring about that overthrow. In the Scales case itself, the Court affirmed a conviction under the membership clause. Since that time, however, the act's forbidding burden of proof has discouraged further prosecutions.
Martin Shapiro
(1986)
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Scales v. United States 367 U.S. 203 (1961)
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Scales v. United States 367 U.S. 203 (1961)