Editing Learned Hand (section)

===The Cold War and McCarthyism===

[[Image:Joseph McCarthy.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|Senator [[Joseph McCarthy]]]]

In the postwar period, Hand shared the dismay of his compatriots about [[Stalinism]] and the onset of the [[Cold War]]. At the same time, he was sensitive to the domestic problems created by what he saw as a hysterical fear of international [[Communism]]. Already in 1947, he noted that "the frantic witch hunters are given free rein to set up a sort of Inquisition, detecting heresy wherever non-[[conformity]] appears".<ref>{{Harvnb|Gunther|1994|p=578}}; {{Harvnb|Stone|2004|p=398}}</ref> He was distressed by the crusade against domestic [[Subversion (politics)|subversion]] that had become part of American public life after the war.<ref>{{Harvnb|Gunther|1994|p=581}}</ref>

Hand particularly despised the anti-Communist campaign of Senator [[Joseph McCarthy]] that began in 1950 and which became known as [[McCarthyism]]. Though Hand expressed his horror of McCarthyism privately, he hesitated to do so publicly because cases arising from it were likely to come before his court.<ref>{{Harvnb|Gunther|1994|p=585}}; {{Harvnb|Stone|2004|p=399}}</ref>

====''Coplon'', ''Dennis'', and ''Remington'' cases====
During this period, Hand took part in three cases that posed a particular challenge to his impartiality on Cold War issues: ''[[United States v. Coplon]]'', ''[[Dennis v. United States]]'', and ''[[United States v. Remington]]''.<ref>''United States v. Coplon'', 185 F.2d 629 (2d Cir. 1950); ''[[Dennis v. United States]]'', 183 F.2d. 201 (2d Cir. 1950); ''United States v. Remington'', 208 F.2d. 567 (2d Cir. 1950)</ref>

[[File:FBI arrests Judith Coplon, March 4, 1949.jpg|thumb|left|upright|The [[FBI]] arrested [[Judith Coplon]] on March 4, 1949.]]

[[United States Department of Justice|Department of Justice]] worker [[Judith Coplon]] had been sentenced to 15 years in prison for stealing and attempting to pass on [[Defense (military)|defense]] information. In 1950, her appeal came before a Second Circuit panel that included Learned Hand. It rested on her claim that her rights under the [[Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fourth Amendment]] had been infringed by a [[search warrant|warrantless search]], and that details of illegal [[wiretaps]] had not been fully disclosed at trial. Although Hand was unambiguous in his view Coplon had been guilty of the charges against her, he nonetheless rejected the trial judge's conclusion that a warrantless arrest had been justified. He ruled therefore that papers seized during the arrest had been inadmissible as evidence.<ref>{{Harvnb|Gunther|1994|pp=592–597}}</ref> The trial judge's failure to disclose all the wiretap records, Hand concluded, necessitated a reversal of Coplon's conviction. In his [[Legal opinion|opinion]], Hand wrote: "[F]ew weapons in the arsenal of freedom are more useful than the power to compel a government to disclose the evidence on which it seeks to forfeit the liberty of its citizens."<ref>{{Harvnb|Gunther|1994|p=596}}; {{Harvnb|Griffith|1973|p=37}}</ref> Hand received [[hate mail]] after this decision.

[[File:DennisEugene.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.75|[[Eugene Dennis]] mugshot, 1948]]

Hand's position in the 1950 case ''Dennis v. United States'' contrasted sharply with his ''Coplon'' opinion. In ''Dennis'', Hand affirmed the convictions under the 1940 [[Smith Act]] of eleven leaders of the [[Communist Party of the United States]] for subversion. He ruled that calls for the violent overthrow of the American government posed enough of a "probable danger" to justify the invasion of free speech.<ref>{{Harvnb|Schick|1970|pp=176–181}}; {{Harvnb|Griffith|1973|pp=150–152}}; {{Harvnb|Irons|1999|pp=379–380}}</ref> After the ruling, he was attacked from the other political direction for appearing to side with McCarthyism.<ref>{{Harvnb|Gunther|1994|pp=598–599}}</ref>

In 1953, Hand wrote a scathing dissent from a Second Circuit decision affirming the [[perjury]] conviction of [[William Remington]], a government economist accused of Communist sympathies and activities. In 1951, the same panel had originally overturned Remington's conviction for perjury. Rather than [[New trial|retrying]] Remington on their original perjury charges, the government instead brought new perjury charges based on his testimony at the first trial. He was convicted of two charges. In the latter appeal, Hand was outvoted two to one. The prosecution produced stronger evidence against Remington at the second trial, much of it obtained from his wife. Sentenced to three years' imprisonment, Remington was murdered in November 1954 by two fellow inmates, who beat him over the head with a brick wrapped in a sock. According to Hand's biographer Gunther, "The image of Remington being bludgeoned to death in prison haunted Hand for the rest of his life."<ref>{{Harvnb|Gunther|1994|pp=624–625}}; {{Harvnb|Stone|2004|p=369}}</ref>

====Public opposition to McCarthyism====
Only after stepping down from his position as a full-time judge in 1951 did Hand join the public debate on McCarthyism. Shortly after his semi-retirement, he gave an unscripted speech that was published in ''[[The Washington Post]]'', an anti-McCarthy newspaper. Hand wrote:<!--The punctuation in the following is inaccurate but it is copied exactly from the source. We have to resist the temptation to correct the punctuation in the quotation.-->

<blockquote>[M]y friends, will you not agree that any society which begins to be doubtful of itself; in which one man looks at another and says: "He may be a traitor," in which that spirit has disappeared which says: "I will not accept that, I will not believe that—I will demand proof. I will not say of my brother that he may be a traitor," but I will say, "Produce what you have. I will judge it fairly, and if he is, he shall pay the penalties; but I will not take it on rumor. I will not take it on hearsay. I will remember that what has brought us up from savagery is a loyalty to truth, and truth cannot emerge unless it is subjected to the utmost scrutiny"—will you not agree that a society that has lost sight of that, cannot survive?<ref>{{Harvnb|Hand|1977|pp=223–24}}</ref></blockquote>

Hand followed this up with an address to the [[Board of Governors|Board of Regents]] of the [[University of the State of New York]] the next year. Once again, his attack on McCarthyism won approval from many liberals. Asked to send a copy of his views to McCarthy, Hand replied that he had [[Richard Nixon]] in mind as well.<ref>{{Harvnb|Gunther|1994|pp=588–589}}</ref> Despite his concerns about Nixon as vice president, Hand voted for [[Dwight Eisenhower]] in the [[1952 United States presidential election|1952 election]] and later credited Eisenhower with bringing about McCarthy's downfall in 1954.<ref>{{Harvnb|Gunther|1994|pp=589–590}}</ref>