The American Jewish Congress today protested the action of a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee in excluding cases of religious discrimination from the purview of the proposed Federal Commission of Civil Rights.
The subcommittee recently voted to eliminate the word "religion" from the section of the civil rights bill authorizing the Commission to investigate complaints of citizens who are "deprived of the right to vote or subjected to unwarranted economic pressures."
In Its original form, the civil rights bill provided that the Commissioner’s power to investigate extended to complaints based on "color, race, religion or national origin." The version voted by the subcommittee omitted the word "religion."
In telegrams sent to Congressman Emanuel Celler, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and to all members of the House group. Shad Polier, chairman of AJC Commission on Law and Social Action, deplored this excision. He strongly urged the approval of the civil rights bill in the from in which It was passed by the House last year.
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