◆ SpookStack

O QO | The officers just gathered up the clothes and personal effects. There was precisely the evidence needed to confirm information gained during the 24 hours of sur~ veillance. No furniture was listed as removed. It seems too clear for argument that there was absolutely nothing unusual about either the search or the seizure. What reason does the majority present for reversing the . conviction of these alleged “seasoned subversives?"” No law is cited. No violation of any law is mentioned. No reference to any clause of the Constitution appears. All the opinion says is: "The seizure of the entire contents of the house and its removal some two hundred miles away to FBI offices for the purpose of examination is beyond the sanction of our caes." This raises a grious question. The Court has no power to sanction arrests or seizures. There is not a word anywhere in any law creating any judicial “sanctioning" power. They are judges, not legislators. The powers of the FBI do not come from ‘the Supreme Court. The remark is no legal excuse for reversing any conviction. The short opinion winds up with the queer statement, that seems to turn the law and facts around: "While the evidence seized from the persons of the petitioners might have been legally admissible, the introduction against each of petitioners of some items seized in the house in the manner aforesaid renders the guilty verdicts illegal." ‘ The only thing mentioned as found on the persons were “docu- ments". How would they prove that the four were occupying the refuge? On the other hand, the 500-odd items, often petty, of clothes and personal effects and household equip~ ment were precisely the proof of "harboring" and "comforting" mentioned in the statute which reads: "18 US Code. §3. Whoever, knowing that an offense against the United States has been committed, receives, relieves, comforts or assists the offender in order to hinder or prevent his apprehension -~- is an accessory ---. The complete living set-up was the very evidence needed. NO fen) i")