Viereck's Foul

The Supreme Court upset this week the conviction of George Sylvester Viereck, self-assured German propagandist whom a Federal District Court jury last March found guilty of failing to tell the State Department all about his doings.

Grounds for the Supreme Court's action were technical: under amendments to the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, the Government had tried ex post facto to bring the German-born American to account for political activities. Viereck, author and journalist, was sentenced to prison for two to six years, fined $1,500 and costs. Now his case is remanded to the lower court; he is under indictment on charges of sedition and conspiracy to undermine the morale of the armed forces.

Chief Justice Stone, who wrote this week's five-to-two* decision, sharply scolded the prosecuting attorney for his conduct during Viereck's trial. Said Stone: "In his closing remarks to the jury he (William Power Maloney, Special Assistant to the Attorney General) indulged in an appeal wholly irrelevant to any facts or issues in the case, the purpose and effect of which could only have been to arouse passion and prejudice. The United States Attorney . . . is in a peculiar and very definite sense the servant of the law, the twofold aim of which is that guilt shall not escape or innocence suffer. . . . But while he may strike hard blows, he is not at liberty to strike foul ones. . . ."

*Dissenting: Justices Black and Douglas; not participating: Justices Jackson Rutledge.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.