Post Lost by Communist Sympathiser

Grey River Argus, 20 March 1947, Page 4

Post Lost by Communist Sympathiser

WASHINGTON, March 18. The United States Court to-day upheld the right of the Civil Service Commission to dismiss a Federal Government employee on the ground that he was a Communist sympathiser. It did so by refusing to review the decision of two lower Courts on the call of Morton Friedman, a former employee, who was dismissed in 1944 after the commission had found there was reasonable doubt of his loyalty to the United States. Friedman appealed, but both the Federal District Court and the Federal Court Appeals refused to order his reinstatement. Friedman had contended that loyalty tests used by the' commission to determine which employees K or applicants for a position were Communist Party supporters were a direct violation of statutory and constitutional protections.

The Department of Justice said during the- hearings that Friedman had admitted he was a prominent leader of.the “American Peace Mobilisation,” a recognised Communist Front organisation. Friedman had opposed America entering the war until Germany invaded Russia, and this change of attitude was one of the tests rcognised by the' commission in determining Communist sympathies.