Wilkinson v. United States

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Wilkinson v. United States

Argued November 17, 1960
Decided February 27, 1961

Full case name:	Frank Wilkinson v. United States

Citations:	365 U.S. 399

Holding

Court membership

Chief Justice: Earl Warren
Associate Justices: Hugo Black, Felix Frankfurter, William O. Douglas, Tom C. Clark, John Marshall Harlan II, William J. Brennan, Jr., Charles Evans Whittaker, Potter Stewart

Case opinions

Concurrence by: Potter Stewart

Wilkinson v. United States was a court case during the McCarthy Era in which the petitioner, Frank Wilkinson, an administrator with the Los Angeles Public Housing Authority, challenged his conviction under 2 U.S.C. § 192, which makes it a misdemeanor to refuse to answer any question pertinent to the question under inquiry for any person summoned as a witness by Congress. The petitioner's conviction was sustained in a 5-4 ruling, upholding a prior ruling in Barenblatt v. United States.

The petitioner was summoned to testify before a Subcommittee of the House of Representatives Un-American Activities Committee, which was investigating alleged Communist infiltration into basic industries and Communist Party propaganda activities. The petitioner refused to answer a question as to whether he was a member of the Communist Party, contending that the Subcommittee lacked legal authority to interrogate him and that its questioning violated his First Amendment rights. He was convicted of a misdemeanor violation of 2 U.S.C. § 192. The Court also, on February 27, 1961, denied Braden v. United States, a companion case appealing a similar 2 U.S.C. § 192 conviction.

The underlying activities of the FBI and government agencies later resulted in a case, Wilkinson v. FBI, 633 F. Supp. 336 (C.D. Cal. 1986), in which it was revealed that the FBI believed the witness that provided the assertion of Wilkinson's association with the Communist Party was "unreliable and emotionally unstable."[1]