Verdict on Kamin Is Now Unlikely Before New Year

Judge Bailey Aldrich '28 may not reach a final verdict in Leon J. Kamin's trial for contempt of Congress until January. After oral arguments on Friday, he gave prosecution and defense attorneys until Dec. 7 to write briefs summarizing their cases. He also referred to the possibility of rebuttal briefs, which would take at least a week to prepare.

Sometime after Dec. 15 Judge Aldrich will begin consideration of a verdict. How long he will take to rule is uncertain. Besides the briefs and testimony records he has also been asked to read a long list of documents.

In a similar case in Washington, D.C., federal judge Joseph C. McGarraghy rendered his verdict three weeks after briefs were filed. Like Aldrich, without a jury, McGarraghy was trying a contempt of Congress case involving Senator Joseph R. McCarthy's Investigations Sub-committee.

Rules on Authors

He ruled that Congress had the right to ask an author of books in U.S. overseas libraries whether he had been a Communist when he wrote them.

In Friday's arguments, defense counsel Calvin P. Bartlett and government attorney John M. Harrington, Jr. '43 again took opposite views as to whether Kamin knew the subject he was called to testify about on Jan. 15, 1954.

Bartlett said that even now no evidence exists about the subject and that Kamin did no know it when he was summoned. Harrington replied that Kamin's remarks during the hearing indicate he did know the subject. No law, however, requires Congressional committees to reveal their intentions to witnesses, he added.

Kamin was first indicted midway through last December.