sperate for staff.
The entire American political system lost its balance, and governance degenerated to the lowest possible level. The Framers of the Constitution had the foresight to establish checks and balances to prevent any one Branch of Government to abuse power. But it was clear that the men in the Executive Branch and the Legislative Branch of Government "fell-down" abysmally. One would have thought that since the politicians failed then the Judiciary and the Courts would rescue the Constitution and restore balance and justice in the political system. But the judges played to the political gallery just like the politicians.
THE JUDICIARY AND THE COURTS
The Hollywood Ten had hoped that the Supreme Court would rule on their invocation of the first Amendment and overturn Congresss ruling. The Supreme Court refused to hear their case for two years. Finally, they met and upheld the Lower Courts decisions and confirmed the convictions. The majority of the Justices were not prepared to go against popular sympathies which were in tune with the Congressional Committees. The Court invoked the concept of Judicial Restraint and argued that the Congress represented the will of the people and the Court would not overrule the policies of another Branch of Government. In the words of Justice Robert Jackson in 1949: "It would be an unwarranted act of judicial usurpation to strip Congress of its investigative power to assume for the Courts, the function of supervising Congressional Committees."
The Hollywood Ten moved to invoke another provision in the Constitution, the Fifth Amendment. The Fifth defended the privilege that one does not have to testify against oneself. The issue once more took a few years to be heard by the Supreme Court when it was upheld that witnesses were entitled to enjoy the privilege against self-incrimination. The Court, however, did not extend the privilege to witnesses who did not name names. In Senator McCarthys words: "A witnesss refusal to answer whether he is a communist on the ground that his answer would tend to incriminate him is most positive proof obtainable that the witness is a communist." Gradually, as the anti-communists begun to lose influence, the US Supreme Court began to act with some propriety. In 1951, the Court ruled that the Attorney Generals list of subversive organizations was invalid without a hearing. Justice Douglas comment on the governments trend to "set in motion, a subversive influence of our own design that destroys us from within" was quite apt, but did not exonerate the Judiciary from accusations that it also fell prey to McCarthyism. The Constitution was left undefended, not only by the Executive and the Congress, but also by the Judiciary.
The FBI was the centerpiece in the federal Governments internal security apparatus. J. Edgar Hoover built up his power and that of the FBI above and beyond both the Executive Branch and the Congress. He was able to influence the general public on the issue of communism. An investigating Committee of the Agency was the first step in verifying who was a communist. Hoover was very unscrupulous with the use of confidential information on citizens. Such information and files were only to be accessed by the Executive Branch. However, leaks from the FBI to journalists and the Congress were regular. In 1951, he developed a Responsibilities Program in response to a request from Liberal Governors who wanted to establish anti-communist credentials to supply information on individuals who worked for their administration. Ex-FBI agents set up an American Business Consultants company. They used information they had while they were at the Bureau to offer their services to Government Agencies, Foundations, Corporations, Universities and the country at large, to identify communists and carryout purges. They published a regular Newsletter called Counterattack.
There were very few confessions so the prosecutors relied on the testimonies of professional anti-communists, ex-communists, undercover agents and others who frequently lied. The Justice Departme