Here is another little gem that proves things could always be worse even in the 50’s:
“The Internal Security Act of 1950, sometimes
called the McCarran Act after its sponsor, Senator Patrick McCarran, enforced compulsory registration of Communists and their sympathizers with the Attorney General, and authorized the government to conduct preventive detention in times of internal security emergencies.”
“Title I of the Internal Security Act was named the Subversive Activities Control Act. It provided that the government establish the Subversive
Activities Control Board (SACB), which was to determine if a particular organization was a Communist organization. If the SACB so determined, it could order the organization to register with the Attorney General as such, and also to annually submit the list of its members as well as its financial statement. If the organization failed to register, it was a duty of the individual members to register, and the failure to do so resulted in criminal prosecution.”
