United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Socialist Workers Party v. Attorney General, 419 U.S. 1314 (1974)

Socialist Workers Party v. Attorney General

No. A-534

Decided December 27, 1974

419 U.S. 1314

Syllabus

Applicants, the Socialist Workers Party, its youth organization (YSA), and various individuals, brought an action against various Government officials for alleged interference in their political activities and sought an injunction, which the District Court granted, barring FBI agents and informants from attending or otherwise monitoring the YSA national convention. Except for upholding a bar against the FBI's transmitting to the Civil Service Commission (CSC) the names of persons attending the convention, the Court of Appeals vacated the injunction, noting that the convention was open to anyone under age 29 and that the only investigative method would be the use of informants who would attend meetings as the public would and that any "chilling effect" on applicants' rights was not sufficient to outweigh prejudice to the Government that compromising its informants would entail. Applicants apply for a stay of the Court of Appeals' order and reinstatement of the District Court's injunction.

Held: Although, unlike the situation in Laird v. Tatum, 408 U. S. 1, applicants' allegations of a "chilling effect" are sufficiently specific to satisfy Art. III's jurisdictional requirements, nevertheless a stay would be improper, since the FBI has represented that it plans no disruptive activity at the convention and will not transmit information to nongovernmental entities, and since interim relief against disclosure of delegates' names to the CSC has been granted.