Discrediting the Red Scare by Robert Justin Goldstein;

Author:Robert Justin Goldstein;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lightning Source Inc. (Tier 1)
Published: 2016-02-22T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOUR

Kutcher’s Troubles Mount as the Government Seeks to Evict Him from His Home and He Struggles on to Keep His Job (1952–1954)

Kutcher noted in his autobiography that while the October 1952 federal appeals court had ruled he could not be fired solely for his SWP membership, the case had simply been returned to the VA for further consideration; he had not been restored to his job, the court had not ruled on the constitutionality of the loyalty program, and it had specifically indicated that membership in AGLOSO groups could be considered as one basis for “disbelief in the loyalty of an employee.” Thus, he noted, the VA could still fire him so long as his SWP membership was considered along with “all the evidence,” and, in effect, the court had only rolled back “my fight for reinstatement to the position it was in four years before.”

While waiting for the Justice Department to decide whether to appeal the case to the Supreme Court or return it to the VA, Kutcher learned about a new development that, he wrote in his autobiography, the “the witch hunters” had stirred up to “give me something else to think about for a while.” This “something” was the Gwinn Act, passed by Congress in mid-1952, which banned any members of organizations listed as “subversive” by the attorney general from living in federally subsidized public housing. As Kutcher and his parents, both then 73, had been living in the Seth Boyden federal low-rent housing project in Newark since his army discharge, shortly before Christmas 1952, his father, Hyman, was asked to sign a statement from the Newark Housing Authority (NHA) indicating that no members of his household were AGLOSO members and was given three days to do so as a condition of continued residence.

According to Kutcher’s autobiography, while their apartment was not luxurious, it was comfortable, and his parents, who had made friends among the neighbors, anticipated living there permanently. His father felt “terrible” upon hearing the news and at first blamed Kutcher, declaring, “There—I hope you’re satisfied now. I’ve told you a hundred times to leave your party. Now we will have to move because you’re so stubborn. And where will we go?” Since the apparent price to pay to keep his parents in the apartment would be for him to leave, Kutcher offered to move out, but his mother began to cry because she felt he wouldn’t be able to properly care for himself. However, he recounted deciding that although the last thing he wanted “was to go into court with a new case,” this was a better alternative, especially given his recent federal court victory concerning his job and especially since the loyalty program at least offered a limited hearing to individuals affected, while the Gwinn Act offered none.

According to Kutcher, he was able to convince his father that “his rights were worth defending too,” and his father wrote to the NHA declaring his loyalty to the United States and his love for both “my country and my home.

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