View source for McCarran Internal Security Act

{{Short description|1950 statute against communist subversive activities}}
{{Use American English|date=June 2025}}
{{Infobox U.S. legislation
| shorttitle = McCarran Internal Security Act
| othershorttitles = {{unbulleted list|McCarran Act|Subversive Activities Control Act of 1950}}
| longtitle = An Act to protect the United States against certain un-American and subversive activities by requiring registration of Communist organizations, and for other purposes.
| colloquialacronym = 
| nickname = Internal Security Act of 1950, Concentration Camp Law
| enacted by = 81st
| effective date = September 23, 1950
| public law url = 
| cite public law = {{USPL|81|831}}
| cite statutes at large = {{usstat|64|987}}
| acts amended = 
| acts repealed = 
| title amended = [[Title 50 of the United States Code|50 U.S.C.: War and National Defense]]
| sections created = {{Usc-title-chap|50|23|I}} § 781 et seq.
| sections amended = 
| leghisturl = 
| introducedin = Senate
| introducedbill = {{USBill|81|S.|4037}}
| introducedby = [[Pat McCarran]] ([[Democratic Party (United States)|D]]-[[Nevada|NV]])
| introduceddate = August 10, 1950<ref>[http://library.cqpress.com/cqalmanac/document.php?id=cqal50-1378031 Internal Security Act]</ref>
| committees = Judiciary Committee
| passedbody1 = Senate
| passeddate1 = September 12, 1950
| passedvote1 = [http://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/81-1950/s431 70–7]
| passedbody2 = House
| passedas2 = 
| passeddate2 = August 29, 1950
| passedvote2 = [http://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/81-1950/h247 354–20]
| conferencedate = September 20, 1950
| passedbody3 = House
| passeddate3 = September 20, 1950
| passedvote3 = [http://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/81-1950/h259 313–20]
| agreedbody3 = <!-- used when the other body agrees without going into committee -->
| agreeddate3 = <!-- used when the other body agrees without going into committee -->
| agreedvote3 = <!-- used when the other body agrees without going into committee -->
| agreedbody4 = <!-- used if agreedbody3 further amends legislation -->
| agreeddate4 = <!-- used if agreedbody3 further amends legislation -->
| agreedvote4 = <!-- used if agreedbody3 further amends legislation -->
| passedbody4 = Senate
| passeddate4 = September 20, 1950
| passedvote4 = [http://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/81-1950/s442 51–7]
| signedpresident = 
| signeddate = 
| unsignedpresident = <!-- used when passed without presidential signing -->
| unsigneddate = <!-- used when passed without presidential signing -->
| vetoedpresident = [[Harry S. Truman]]
| vetoeddate = September 22, 1950
| overriddenbody1 = House
| overriddendate1 = September 22, 1950
| overriddenvote1 = [http://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/81-1950/h264 286–48]
| overriddenbody2 = Senate
| overriddendate2 = September 22, 1950
| overriddenvote2 = [http://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/81-1950/s444 57–10]
| amendments = 
| SCOTUS cases = {{ubl|''[[Carlson v. Landon]]'', {{ussc|342|524|1952}}|''[[United States v. Spector]]'', {{ussc|343|169|1952}}|''[[Heikkila v. Barber]]'', {{ussc|345|229|1953}}|''[[Galvan v. Press]]'', {{ussc|347|522|1954}}|Communist Party of United States v. Subversive Activities Control Bd., 351 U.S. 115 (1956)|''[[United States v. Witkovich]]'', {{ussc|353|194|1957}}|''[[Rowoldt v. Perfetto]]'', {{ussc|355|115|1957}}|Bonetti v. Rogers, 356 U.S. 691 (1958)|''[[Kent v. Dulles]]'', {{ussc|357|116|1958}}}}
}}

The '''Internal Security Act of 1950''', {{USStat|64|987}} (Public Law 81-831), also known as the '''Subversive Activities Control Act of 1950''', the '''McCarran Act''' after its principal sponsor Sen. [[Pat McCarran]] (D-Nevada), or the '''Concentration Camp Law''',<ref name="Izumi 2005">{{Cite journal|last=Izumi|first=Masum|date=May 2005|title=Prohibiting "American Concentration Camps"|journal=Pacific Historical Review|volume= 74|issue=2|pages=165–166|jstor=10.1525/phr.2005.74.2.165|doi=10.1525/phr.2005.74.2.165}}</ref> is a [[United States federal law]]. Congress enacted it over President [[Harry Truman]]'s veto. It required Communist organizations to register with the federal government. The 1965 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in ''[[Albertson v. Subversive Activities Control Board]]'' saw much of the act's Communist registration requirement abolished. The emergency detention provision was repealed when the [[Non-Detention Act]] of 1971 was signed into law by President Richard Nixon. The act's [[Subversive Activities Control Board]], which enforced the law's provision calling for investigations of persons engaging in "subversive activities," would also be abolished in 1972.

==Provisions==
Its titles were I: Subversive Activities Control (Subversive Activities Control Act) and II: Emergency Detention (Emergency Detention Act of 1950).<ref>[http://tucnak.fsv.cuni.cz/~calda/Documents/1950s/Inter_Security_50.html The Full Text of the McCarran Internal Security Act] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221006103713/http://tucnak.fsv.cuni.cz/~calda/Documents/1950s/Inter_Security_50.html |date=2022-10-06 }}, accessed June 25, 2012</ref>

The Act required [[Communist registration|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 barred from entering or leaving the country. Immigrants found in violation of the act within five years of being naturalized could have their citizenship revoked.

United States Attorney General [[J. Howard McGrath]] asked that the CPUSA provide a list of all its members in the United States, as well as 'reveal its financial details.'<ref>{{Cite news|title=Russia Dominates US Reds, McGrath Formally Charges|last=Wood|first=Lewis|date=1950|work=The New York Times|id={{ProQuest|111584130}}}}</ref> Furthermore, members of 'Communist-Action Organizations' including those of the [[Communist Party of the United States of America]] were required (prior to a 1965 Supreme Court case mentioned below)<ref>''[[Albertson v. Subversive Activities Control Board]]''</ref> to register with the U.S. Attorney General their name and address and be subject to the statutes applicable to such registrants (e.g. being barred from federal employment, among others).<ref>Title I, Section 5-7</ref> In addition, once registered, members were liable for prosecution solely based on membership under the [[Smith Act]] due to the expressed and alleged intent of the organization.<ref>''[[Smith Act trials of Communist Party leaders]]''</ref><ref>''[[Scales v. United States]]''</ref>

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]]."<ref>Title II, Section 103</ref>

It tightened alien exclusion and deportation laws and allowed for the detention of dangerous, disloyal, or [[subversion (political)|subversive]] persons in times of war or "internal security emergency". The act had implications for thousands of people displaced because of the Second World War. In March 1951, chairman of the United States Displaced Persons Commission was quoted as saying that 100,000 people would be barred from entering the United States that otherwise would have been accepted. By March 1, 1951, the act had excluded 54,000 people of German ethnic origin and 12,000 displaced Russian persons from entering the United States.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Gibson Holds Law Bars 100,000 D.P.'s|date=March 10, 1951|work=The New York Times|id={{ProQuest|111830215}}}}</ref> Notable persons barred from the United States include [[Ernst Chain]], who was declined a visa on two occasions in 1951.<ref>{{Cite news|title=No Admission|date=December 9, 1951|work=The New York Times|id={{ProQuest|111905452}}}}</ref>

The Act made picketing a Federal courthouse a felony<ref>''New York Times'': [https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1950/09/25/86458532.pdf "M'Grath to Press New Curbs on Reds," September 25, 1950], accessed June 25, 2012</ref> if intended to obstruct the court system or influence jurors or other trial participants.<ref>Title I, Section 31</ref>

==Legislative history==

===Passage===

Several key sections of the Act were taken from the earlier [[Mundt–Ferguson Communist Registration Bill]], which Congress had failed to pass.<ref>[http://everything2.com/title/The+Nixon-Mundt+Bill Everything2: The Nixon-Mundt Bill] Retrieved 2012-04-10</ref>

It included language that Sen. [[Karl Earl Mundt|Mundt]] had introduced several times before without success aimed at punishing federal employees for passing information "classified by the President (or by the head of any such department, agency, or corporation with the approval of the President) as affecting the security of the United States" to "any representative of a foreign government or to any officer or member of a Communist organization". He told a Senate hearing that it was a response to what the [[House Un-American Activities Committee]] (HUAC) had learned when investigating "the so-called [[Pumpkin Papers|pumpkin papers]] case, the espionage activities in the [[Whittaker Chambers|Chambers]]-[[Alger Hiss|Hiss]] case, the [[Elizabeth Bentley|Bentley]] case, and others."<ref>Justia: [https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/317/546/391121/ ''Scarbeck v. U.S.'' paragraphs 20-1], accessed June 25, 2012</ref>

President Harry Truman [[List of United States presidential vetoes|vetoed]] it on September 22, 1950, and sent Congress a lengthy veto message in which he criticized specific provisions as "the greatest danger to freedom of speech, press, and assembly since the [[Alien and Sedition Acts|Alien and Sedition Laws]] of 1798," a "mockery of the Bill of Rights" and a "long step toward totalitarianism".<ref name=trumanveto>Harry S. Truman, [http://trumanlibrary.org/publicpapers/viewpapers.php?pid=883 Veto of the Internal Security Bill] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070301113033/http://trumanlibrary.org/publicpapers/viewpapers.php?pid=883 |date=2007-03-01 }}, Harry S. Truman Library and Museum.</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Text of President's Veto Message Vetoing the Communist-Control Bill |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1950/09/23/113171737.pdf|access-date=April 23, 2013 |newspaper=New York Times|date=September 23, 1950}}</ref>

The House overrode the veto without debate by a vote of 286–48 the same day. The Senate overrode his veto the next day after "a twenty-two hour continuous battle" by a vote of 57–10. Thirty-one Republicans and 26 Democrats voted in favor, while five members of each party opposed it.  Democratic Senator [[Hubert Humphrey]] led the outnumbered opposition in the Senate despite having voted in favor of the law the first time.<ref>{{cite news|last=Trussel|first=C.P. |title=Red Bill Veto Beaten, 57-10, By Senators|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1950/09/24/306329152.pdf|access-date=April 23, 2013|newspaper=New York Times|date=September 24, 1950}}</ref>

===Amended===
Part of the Act was repealed by the [[Non-Detention Act]] of 1971 after facing public opposition, notably from Japanese Americans. President [[Richard Nixon]], while signing the repeal bill, referred to the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II for historical context as to why the bill needed to be repealed.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Izumi|first=Masumi|date=May 2005|title=Prohibiting "American Concentration Camps"|journal=Pacific Historical Review|volume= 74|issue=2|pages=166|jstor=10.1525/phr.2005.74.2.165|doi=10.1525/phr.2005.74.2.165}}</ref>

For example, violation of {{USC|50|797}} (Section 21 of "the Internal Security Act of 1950"), which concerns security of military bases and other sensitive installations, may be punishable by a prison term of up to one year.<ref>United States Department of Defense [https://web.archive.org/web/20040706100244/http://www.dtic.mil/whs/directives/corres/html2/d52008x.htm DoD Directive 5200.8, "Security of DoD Installations and Resources", 25 April 1991], retrieved August 26, 2005.</ref>

The part of the act codified as {{USC|50|798}} has been repealed in its entirety for violating the First Amendment.<ref name="USC798">{{cite web|url=http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/uscode/50/23/I/798|title=50 USC 798|work=Findlaw}}</ref>

===Abolition===
The Subversive Activities Control Board was abolished by Congress in 1972.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Schipper |first1=Martin Paul |title=Records of the Subversive Activities Control Board, 1950-1972 |date=1988 |publisher=University Publications of America |isbn=978-1-55655-050-8 |oclc=698017558 }}{{page needed|date=April 2023}}</ref>

==Constitutionality==
[[File:61-mccarranact-poster.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Civil libertarians and radical political activists considered the McCarran Act to be a dangerous and unconstitutional infringement of political liberty, as exemplified in this 1961 poster.]]

The [[Supreme Court of the United States]] was initially deferential towards the Internal Security Act. For example, in ''Galvan v. Press'',<ref>''Galvan v. Press'', {{ussc|347|522|1954}},</ref> the Court upheld the deportation of a Mexican alien on the basis that he had briefly been a member of the Communist Party from 1944 to 1946, even though such membership had been lawful at that time (and had been declared retroactively illegal by the Act).

As McCarthyism faded into history, the Court adopted a more skeptical approach towards the Act. The 1964 decision in ''[[Aptheker v. Secretary of State]]'' ruled unconstitutional Section 6, which prevented any member of a communist party from using or obtaining a passport. In 1965, the Court voted 8–0 in ''[[Albertson v. Subversive Activities Control Board]]'' to invalidate the Act's requirement that members of the Communist Party were to register with the government. It held that the information which party members were required to submit could form the basis of their prosecution for being party members, which was then a crime, and therefore deprived them of their [[Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fifth Amendment]] right against self-incrimination.<ref>{{cite book|last=Belknap |first=Michael R.|title=The Vinson Court: Justices, Rulings, and Legacy|year=2004|publisher=ABC-CLIO|location=Santa Barbara, CA |page=171|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oeFRJj8dVAUC&pg=PA171|isbn=9781576072011}}</ref> In 1967, the act's provision prohibiting communists from working for the federal government or at defense facility was also struck down by the Supreme Court as a violation of the First Amendment's right to freedom of association in ''[[United States v. Robel]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Belknap |first=Michael R.|title=The Supreme Court Under Earl Warren, 1953-1969|year=2005|publisher=University of South Carolina|page=79|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7zNAzo_xJEMC&pg=PA79|isbn=9781570035630}}</ref>

==Use by U.S. military==
[[File:Use of Deadly Force Authorized (5730792058).jpg|thumb|A no trespassing sign at [[Langley Air Force Base]], citing section 21 of Internal Security Act of 1950/{{USC|50|797}}.]]
The U.S. military continues to use {{USC|50|797}}, citing it in U.S. Army regulation AR 190–11 in support of allowing installation commanders to regulate privately owned weapons on army installations. An Army message known as an ALARACT<ref>ALARACT 333/2011 DTG R 311939Z AUG 11</ref> states "senior commanders have specific authority to regulate privately owned weapons, explosives, and ammunition on army installations." The ALARACT refers to AR 190-11 and public law (section 1062 of Public Law 111–383, also known as the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011); AR 190–11 in turn cites the McCarran Internal Security Act (codified as 50 USC 797). The ALARACT reference is a truncated version of the public law.<ref>{{cite web|last=Public Law|title=111-383|url=http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW-111publ383/pdf/PLAW-111publ383.pdf|work=section 1062|publisher=111th Congress}}</ref>

==Fictional reimagining==
The 1971 [[pseudo-documentary]] film ''[[Punishment Park]]'' speculated what might have happened if [[Richard Nixon]] had enforced the McCarran Act against members of the [[anti-war movement]], [[black power movement]], the [[feminist movement]], and others.

==See also==
* [[Smith Act|Alien Registration Act]]
* [[Espionage Act of 1917]]
* [[Hatch Act of 1939]]
* [[Mundt–Nixon Bill]] of 1948
* [[Mundt–Ferguson Communist Registration Bill]] of 1950
* [[National Committee to Defeat the Mundt Bill]] (1948–1950)
* [[Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952|McCarran–Walter Act]]
* [[McCarthyism]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Izumi, Masumi. "Prohibiting 'American Concentration Camps'," ''Pacific Historical Review'' 74.2 (2005): 165-194 [https://www.academia.edu/download/35912874/PHR.pdf online]{{dead link|date=January 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}.
* Keohane, Jennifer. "How Would They Ever Learn Better--The Sedition Act, the McCarran Internal Security Act, and Congressional Failure." ''Northwestern Interdisciplinary Law Review'' 1 (2008): 217+ [https://mdsoar.org/bitstream/handle/11603/7346/Jennifer%20Keohane%20Sedition%20Act.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210725024443/https://mdsoar.org/bitstream/handle/11603/7346/Jennifer%20Keohane%20Sedition%20Act.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y |date=2021-07-25 }}.
* Lee, R. Alton. "'New Dealers, Fair Dealers, Misdealers, and Hiss Dealers': Karl Mundt and the Internal Security Act of 1950." ''South Dakota History'' 10 (1980): 277-90 [https://www.sdshspress.com/journal/south-dakota-history-10-4/new-dealers-fair-dealers-misdealers-and-hiss-dealers-karl-mundt-and-the-internal-security-act-of-1950/vol-10-no-4-new-dealers-fair-dealers-misdealers-and-hiss-dealers-1.pdf online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210227031704/https://www.sdshspress.com/journal/south-dakota-history-10-4/new-dealers-fair-dealers-misdealers-and-hiss-dealers-karl-mundt-and-the-internal-security-act-of-1950/vol-10-no-4-new-dealers-fair-dealers-misdealers-and-hiss-dealers-1.pdf |date=2021-02-27 }}.
* McCarran, Patrick A. "The Internal Security Act of 1950." ''University of Pittsburgh Law Review'' 12 (1950): 481+. [https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/upitt12&div=41&id=&page= online]
* Ybarra, Michael J. ''Washington Gone Crazy: Senator Pat McCarran and the Great American Communist Hunt'' (Steerforth Publishing, 2004) [https://archive.org/details/washingtongonecr0000ybar online] pp 509–534.

==External links==
* [https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/COMPS-10345/uslm/COMPS-10345.xml Internal Security Act of 1950] as amended ([https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/COMPS-10345/pdf/COMPS-10345.pdf PDF]/[https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/COMPS-10345/ details]) in the [[United States Government Publishing Office|GPO]] [https://www.govinfo.gov/help/comps Statute Compilations collection]
* [https://www.govinfo.gov/link/statute/64/987?link-type=pdf&.pdf Internal Security Act of 1950] as enacted ([https://www.govinfo.gov/link/statute/64/987?link-type=details details]) in the [[United States Statutes at Large|US Statutes at Large]]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070714013811/http://www.dtic.mil/whs/directives/corres/pdf/520008p.pdf Department of Defense Instruction], December 2005 (from Defense Technical Information Center)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mccarran Internal Security Act}}
[[Category:1950 in American law]]
[[Category:81st United States Congress]]
[[Category:Anti-communism in the United States]]
[[Category:McCarthyism]]
[[Category:Political repression in the United States]]
[[Category:United States federal defense and national security legislation]]