Biography
Lloyd Barenblatt was a psychology instructor at Vassar College who in June 1954 was subpoenaed by the House Un-American Activities Committee, sitting in Albany, to answer questions about Communist activity at the University of Michigan, where he had been a graduate student. He refused on First Amendment grounds, citing the principles laid down by the Hollywood Ten. He was cited for contempt of Congress, convicted in federal court in Washington, and after exhausting appeals lost 5–4 at the Supreme Court in Barenblatt v. United States, 360 U.S. 109 (1959). Justice Hugo Black wrote a sweeping dissent — joined by Chief Justice Warren and Justices Douglas and Brennan — accusing the majority of approving naked political punishment of dissenting professors. Barenblatt was already serving his contempt sentence by March 1960, when the National Guardian identified him among four imprisoned First Amendment defendants. His imprisonment preceded the 1961 HUAC contempt terms served by Frank Wilkinson and Carl Braden. Vassar fired him; he never taught again.
On June 8, 1959, the Supreme Court affirmed Barenblatt's contempt conviction by a 5–4 division, after earlier reconsideration in light of the Watkins decision. National Guardian's contemporary report explains that he had refused to discuss political associations before the House Un-American Activities Committee. The appellate ruling date is distinct from sentencing and actual jail admission, which are not changed here.
