U.S. PROFESSOR’S DISMISSAL

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27679, 8 June 1955, Page 13

U.S. PROFESSOR’S DISMISSAL

Supreme Court Rules Action Illegal <Rec. 9 P.m.) WASHINGTON. June 6. The Federal Supreme Court ruled today that Professor John Peters was dismissed improperly from the United States Government service on disloyalty charges in 1953. However, the Court side-stepped any ruling on the major issue posed by Professor Peters —whether a Federal employee charged with being a security risk can be dismissed without having a chance to confront his accusers. The lawyers for both Professor Peters and- lor the Justice Department had urged the Court to decide the broad issue, so that the confrontation question would be settled once and for all.

Professor Peters, Senior Professor of Medicine at Yale, was dismissed as a part-time consultant with the Federal Public Health Service after a Loyalty Review board found there was “reasonable doubt” about his loyalty. He said he never belonged to the Communist Party. He submitted that he had no chance to defend himself against an '‘unsworn, second-hand statement to the F. 8.1.” Professor Peters had no opportunity to cross-examine witnesses or to answer the evidence supplied by undisclosed informants.