| I had lost my teaching position because of alleged
left-wing associations and I hoped that, if I could go overseas, I could find some
professional work. My lawyers and I argued a long time about whether or not I should sign
an affidavit that I had never been a Communist. I'm not proud of it, but finally I did it.
In spite of that affidavit, the State Department continued asserting that I had been a
Communist. They also held against me my friendship with Einstein who was considered to be
on the left, himself. Mine was the first passport case lawyers took to court. The court
ordered the State Department to grant me a passport. They refused. In the appeals court
procedure, they said there was a danger that, if I went to Europe, I might assassinate the
President of France. At that point, the chief judge said he had heard enough. He ordered
the State Department to give me a "quasijudicial" hearing within three days, at
which time I would be permitted to cross-examine the witnesses against me. Rather than let
me question their witnesses, the informers, they gave me the passport. |
