Bridges v. Wixon

Harry Bridges was a citizen of Australia legally resident in the United States. A merchant mariner by trade, he became a leading organizer of both the Industrial Workers of the World and the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA). Business interests in the West Coast shipping industry suspected Bridges of being a communist; Communist Party USA (CPUSA) officers had previously strongly implied the ILA was coordinating its actions with the party, there were known party members among its membership, and Bridges himself adhered to what was generally perceived to be the Soviet Communist party line such as publicly supporting the Soviet invasion of Poland and the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Two former CPUSA members — John Leech and Arthur Kent — even alleged Bridges had been secretly elected to the party's central committee under the nom de guerre "Rossi". Nonetheless, he publicly disclaimed formal party membership. In 1939, the United States Government initiated deportation proceedings against Bridges, alleging he was a communist. The attempt failed due to a lack of evidence that Bridges had ever held formal membership in the Communist Party. In 1940, the United States Congress passed the Smith Act, which — among other things — allowed the deportation of an alien on the basis of their affiliation with an organization advocating the overthrow of the United States Government. The following year, in 1941, United States Attorney General Francis Biddle personally ordered the deportation of Bridges, this time charging him with violating the Smith Act through notice of his labor advocacy which strongly suggested communist affiliation, even if there was no direct evidence of party membership. Bridges' administrative appeal of the deportation order to the Board of Immigration Appeals failed. Bridges sought release from the custody of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) by habeas corpus petition to the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, which was denied. Bridges unsuccessfully appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. ==Opinion of the court==

The United States Supreme Court heard Bridges' final appeal for a petition for a writ of certiorari from April 2-3, 1945. The court, in a 5-3 ruling, determined Bridges' due process rights had been violated, finding that those who investigated Bridges relied on hearsay and other unreliable evidence against him. The majority opinion, written by William O. Douglas, stopped short of asserting a First Amendment violation by the government, instead noting that the government had failed to take "meticulous care" in deportation, which must be observed so as to meet the "essential standards of fairness". Murphy joined the majority, but grounded his separate concurrence in the First Amendment, writing that, while the government can exclude non-citizens from entering the United States based on undesirable speech, once an alien had lawfully entered, he could not be removed for reasons of speech alone. According to Murphy's concurring opinion: Murphy also argued that deportation of Bridges would be further illicit as it relied on “guilt by association” instead of “personal guilt.” at the University of Washington. Stone's dissent The dissent was written by Justice Harlan Fiske Stone who deferred to Congress' "plenary power" over immigration and deportation. ==Aftermath==

Three months following the Supreme Court's decision, Bridges was naturalized a United States citizen. ==See also==