BRENNAN, J., Dissenting Opinion

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

360 U.S. 109

Barenblatt v. United States

CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT

MR. JUSTICE BRENNAN, dissenting.

I would reverse this conviction. It is sufficient that I state my complete agreement with my Brother BLACK that no purpose for the investigation of Barenblatt is revealed by the record except exposure purely for the sake of exposure. This is not a purpose to which Barenblatt's rights under the First Amendment can validly be subordinated. An investigation in which the processes of lawmaking and law-evaluating are submerged entirely in exposure of individual behavior -- in adjudication, of a sort, through the exposure process -- is outside the constitutional pale of congressional inquiry. Watkins v. United States, 354 U.S. 178, 187, 200; see also Sweezy v. New Hampshire, 354 U.S. 234; NAACP v. Alabama, 357 U.S. 449; Uphaus v. Wyman, ante, p. 82 (dissenting opinion).