State Legislatures and Communism
The Current Scene
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3764460 |
|---|---|
| Authors | William B Prendergast (United States Naval Academy, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1950 |
| Volume | 44 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 556-574 |
| Publication date | 1950-09-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Political Science Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0003-0554 • E-ISSN: 1537-5943 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/1950797 |
| OpenAlex | W2132049996 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 7 |
The prosecution of the cold war on the domestic front was a major concern of the state legislatures which convened in 1949. Quantitatively, last year's output of state laws against subversive movements surpassed that of any other year in our history except 1919. It was a rare hopper which did not receive at least a sprinkling of bills of this sort. And the fact that no more than fifteen states enacted anti-Communist laws can be attributed in large part to the inability of lawmakers to think of restrictive measures which an earlier legislature had not already placed on the statute books.As 1950 began, Maine alone among the states was without a law designed specifically to repress or combat subversive organizations or individuals. Thirty-eight states at that date had criminal statutes prohibiting acts of violence and utterances urging violence for the purpose of effecting political or economic change. Although Tennessee's Sedition Act goes back to 1715 and two other states enacted similar statutes in the nineteenth century, these laws are for the most part products of the present century
Alien · Citizenship · Communism · Front (military · Geography · Legislation · Legislative history · Legislature · Political science · Politics · Sedition · State (computer science · Statute · American Political and Social Dynamics · Law
| Citations per year | 0.04 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 1952 - 1990 (39) |
| Highly cited | No |