Court Rules Against McCarran Act

A Federal District Court in Brooklyn, N.Y. decided yesterday that the United States violated the First Amendment by denying Belgian scholar Ernest Mandel entry into the country in 1969 on the basis of Mandel's political views.

By a 2-1 vote, the three-judge panel also declared sections of the McCarran Act-which governs U.S. immigration and naturalization laws-unconstitutional.

Leonard B. Boudin, visiting professor of Law, argued the case on behalf of Mandel-a noted Marxist economist-and eight other plaintiffs. Defendants in the case were Attorney General John M. Mitchell and Secretary of State William P. Rogers.

Hear and Express

In declaring the McCarran Act unconstitutional, the court in effect ruled that the First Amendment guarantees citizens the right to hear as well as express opinions without government censorship.

"This is a decision of major importance," Boudin said yesterday. "This is the first time the McCarran Act [passed in 1952] has been seriously challenged, although many deportations and exclusions have been carried out in the past under the Act."

In the majority opinion written by John F. Dooling, Jr., District Court Judge for the Eastern District of New York, the court concluded that the government cannot censor information intended for a person's exercise of political judgement, and noted that sovereignty rests not with the government but with the people.

Precedents

The court cited the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794: the New York Times vs. Sullivan libel case of 1964 which limited the definition of libel in cases involving public figures; and an articleon First Amendment rights by former Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. as precedents for its decision.

In the dissenting opinion, District Judge John R. Bartels held that the government has an inherent and absolute power in matters of foreign policy, and that this power extends to the exclusion of aliens.

Bartels also cited Congressional decisions which outline instances in which it may be necessary to exclude aliens for political activities.

Mandel applied for a non-immigrant visa in Brussels on Sept, 8, 1969, seeking permission to enter the U.S. for six days to attend a conference on economics at Stanford University. Mandel was supposed to debate John Kenneth Galbraith, Warburg Professor of Economics, on the topic "Technology and the Third World."

No Explanation

Five days after the end of the conference, Mandel received the first notification from the U.S. consul in Brussels that his application had been denied.

The consul gave no reason for the denial; the letter confirming the denial simply cited the State Department's authority under the McCarran Act to exclude aliens because of their "unapproved" political beliefs or associations.

On Oct. 23, 1969, Mandel applied again for a non-immigrant visa in order to speak at a series of conventions and seminars-sponsored mainly by universities and academic groups-scheduled for late November and early December of 1969.

Responding to pressure from Under-secretary of State Eliot L. Richardson '41 and several prominent members of the academic community, Secretary of State Rogers requested a waiver of ineligibility "in the interest of free expression of opinion and exchange of ideas."

Rogers' request was denied by Attorney General Mitchell on the day Mandel was scheduled to speak at City Hall in New York City.

The McCarran Act had been waived twice before during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations to allow Mandel entry into the country.

Toured U.S.

Mandel came to the U.S. as a journalist in 1962, and completed an extensive speaking tour of American and Canadian universities in 1968. He was the keynote speaker at the 1968 Socialist Scholars Conference at Rutgers University.

Following the reversal by Mitchell, Mandel filed suit against him and Rogers in conjunction with eight U.S. citizens.

The other plaintiffs were: Norman Birnbaum; Noam Chomsky, professor of Linguistics at M. I. T.; Richard A. Falk, professor of Law at Princeton; Robert L. Heilbroner '40, professor of Economics at the New School for Social Research in New York City; Wassily W. Leontief, Lee Professor of Economics; David Mermelsteing; Louis Menashe; and Robert P. Wolff, professor of Philosophy at Columbia.