The conduct of the McCarthy hearings at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, in 1953 as a result of which 42 civilian employees at the Army base–38 of them Jews–were suspended, was scored in a report prepared by a group of prominent attorneys for submission next month to the New Jersey Bar Association. All but a handful of the suspended employees have been vindicated and reinstated in their jobs.
The report charges that the hearings of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, presided over by Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, were held in a “hostile atmosphere” and that the rights of the defendants were frequently curtailed. “It is our considered opinion,” declares the report, which was signed by six of the seven lawyers who investigated the hearings, “that the hearings were conducted in an improper manner, bearing in mind that the witnessed were charged with alleged violations of the Espionage Act, matters seriously affecting their reputations, property rights, and perhaps their liberties.”
Among the signatories of the report are Theodore D. Parsons, former Attorney General of New Jersey, and John O. Bigelow, former judge of the state Superior Court.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
