ABSTRACT
No earlier Court had assumed a more evident sensitivity in the field of civil liberties than had the Warren Court with the Jencks decision and the four historic opinions that followed on Red Monday. Yates in tandem with Nelson did indeed produce a decline in successful prosecutions for sedition and curb the threat to outlaw the Communist Party. In addition, in the 1956-57 term, the Court had struck down or restricted aspects of the loyalty-security program, use of faceless informers, passport and travel restrictions, state anti-subversive statutes, and dismissal for invoking privilege. But too much should not be made of what appeared to be a shift in judicial thought and outlook. After all, no court has ever overturned a national sedition statue, such the Smith Act (1940), the McCarran Act (1950), and repressive provisions in Taft-Hartley Act (1947).
