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Communist Control Act of 1954Communist Party, to prohibit members of Communist organizations from serving in certain representative capacities, and for other purposes.Acronyms (colloquial)CCA Enacted by the 83rd United States Congress Effective. August 24, 1954CitationsPublic law83-637Statutes at Large68 Stat. 775CodificationTitles amended50 U.S.C.: War and National DefenseU.S.C. sections created50 U.S.C. ch. 23, subch. IV § 841 et seq.Legislative historyIntroduced in the Senate as S. 3706 by John Marshall Butler (R–MD) on July 6, 1954Committee consideration by Senate JudiciaryPassed the Senate on August 12, 1954 (85–0)Passed the House on August 16, 1954 (305–2)Reported by the joint conference committee on August 19, 1954; agreed to by the Senate on August 19, 1954 (79–0) and by the House on August 19, 1954 (266–2)Signed into law by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on August 24, 1954The Communist Control Act of 1954 (68 Stat. 775, 50 U.S.C. §§ 841–844) is an American law signed by President Dwight Eisenhower on August 24, 1954, that outlawed the Communist Party USA and criminalized membership in or support for the party or "Communist-action organizations", on the basis that communists vowed to overthrow the government of the United States.[1] The act also defines evidence to be considered by a jury in determining participation in the activities,Created during the period of the Second Red Scare (1946–1954), the act was one of many bills drafted with the intention of protecting the American government from the threat allegedly posed by international communists.[3] During this time, some[specify] argued that "the pursuit of subversive aims even by peaceful means should be outlawed."[1] Thus, many opposed communism because of its explicitly declared and historically demonstrable goal to undermine liberal democracy. In the words of Ernest van den Haag, there was "no place in democracy for those who want to abolish [it] even with a peaceful vote".[1]The Communist Control Act of 1954 was originally proposed as an amendment to the Internal Security Act of 1950, which had sought to combat the spread of communism in labor unions.[3] Apart from its secondary focus which concentrated on the illegality of "communist front organizations" (i.e. labor unions),[4] the bill was drafted with the intention of tackling the root of pro-communist sentiment in the United States: the Communist Party. In its second section, the Communist Control Act characterized the Communist Party as an "agency of a hostile foreign power".[3] The party was described as an "instrumentality of a conspiracy to overthrow the government" and a "clear, present, and continuing danger to the security of the United States".[3]The act made membership in the Communist Party a criminal act and stipulated that all party members would be sanctioned with up to a $10,000 fine or imprisonment for five years or both if they failed to register with the U.S. Attorney General as such. Additionally, according to the third section, the Communist Party would be deprived of "the rights, privileges, and immunities of a legal body".[4]The Internal Security Act of 1950 had defined two types of "communist organizations". Republican Senator Hugh A. Butler of Nebraska later proposed a bill aimed at the removal of Communists from leadership positions in labor unions by designating "communist-infiltrated organizations" as a third class of communist organization. Afterward, Democratic Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota put forward a substitute to that bill with the intention of directly tackling the "root of evil", the Communist Party members.[5] Through an amendment by Democratic Senator Price Daniel of Texas, both the Butler and Humphrey bills were merged into one. The final version of the bill was passed unanimously in the Senate. The House of Representatives also made additions to the bill, including a section which listed the criteria for "determining what constitutes membership in the [Communist] Party and related organizations".[5]