Federal Loyalty Program Ruled Not Applicable to Non-Sensitive Jobs
In Cole v. Young decided on this day, the Supreme Court ruled that Kendrick Cole’s dismissal from his federal job as a food and drug inspector with the Department of Health, Education and Welfare was illegal because it did not involve sensitive national security matters.
Kendrick Cole was dismissed under the terms of the federal Loyalty Program (created by President Harry Truman on March 21, 1947).
As was to be expected, the decision provoked an angry outburst by arch-conservative U.S. Senators Joe McCarthy and James Eastland who, on June 26, 1956, accused the Supreme Court of issuing “one pro-Communist decision after another.” The following year, in what was labelled “Red Monday” June 17, 1957, the court issued several decision limiting anti-communist laws or procedures. Historians generally argue that Red Monday marked a significant turning point for the court, in which it solidified its position of ruling against most (but not all) Cold War anti-communist measures that violated civil liberties.
The Court: “The term ‘national security’ is not defined in that [1950] Act, but it is clear from the statute as a whole that it was intended to comprehend only those activities of the Government that are directly concerned with the protection of the Nation from internal subversion or foreign aggression, and not those which contribute to the strength of the Nation only through their impact on the general welfare.”
Learn more: Athan Theoharis, Seeds of Repression: Harry S. Truman and the Origins of McCarthyism (1971)
And learn more about “Red Monday”: Arthur J. Sabin, In Calmer Times: The Supreme Court and Red Monday (1999)