Editing McCarran Internal Security Act (section)

==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>