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ACLU — Part 11
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Affirmations, in lieu of'an oath, are expressly alloued by Congress. This should
solve this problem easily. However, it is the implications of.the decision thatare
frightening.
This is not a nation of God-believers alone..
It is a nation of people
who have freedom of.conscience who have the right to believe.or not to believe
..
In Aprii of l953, the Attorney General's office, in effect, dropped the case,.
.
and eventuaily a new judge gave Plywacki his citizenship without the oath.,
Thecase
is thought. to.be one of the few of its kind ever to come to light..
COURT BARS POLITICAL QUESTIONS IN INHERITANCE CASE
The right of a son residing in a foreign country to inherit his father's es
tate without having to answer questions about his political affiliations has been up.
held by a New Jersey appeals. court..
The .court also ruled on the extent of due
process in inheritance caseso
When Joseph Hozar died, his brother Stephen thought he was the sole heir and
was made administrator of the estate. In December l953, Alois Wozar,
a resident of
Czechoslovakia, claimed to be Joseph's son and therefore entitled to the inheritance
He filed in an Ocean County, N.J. court through American attorneys.to obtain his in
heritance.
Counsel for Stephen Wozar sought to identify Alois further and secured inter
rogatories from the court requiring that information be submitted by.Alois Wozar in
to his possible membership in the Commnist Party of Czechoslovakia or his sympathy.
with Communist organizations there.
Acting in the New Jersey court in behalf of Alois Wozar, attorney Jerome Alper
of Newark failed to submit any answers to the questions as to Wozar's possible Comm
nist sympathies and sought to have the case contimed long enough to have testimony
taken in Czechoslovakia on other matters relating to Wozar's identity. During the
interim, attorneys for Stephen Wozar were successful in having the entire case dis-?
missed in August 1954 on the grounds that enough time had elapsed and the questions?
had not been answered.
The Appellate Division of the Superior Court of New Jersey reversed this'ac--
tion, declaring that questions regarding Wozar's possible Communist affiliations were,
to inherit his father's estate, "his political beliefs as a citizen and resident of.
the court said.
With respect to due process, the court noted that trial'courts have wide dis.
cretion in this type of case, including the right to dismiss the case entirely But,
said the court, "Such drastic action should not be taken except in.unusual circum-
stances which display gross inattention, carelessness or contumacy... Noting the
difficulty of shuttling information back and forth from Czechoslovakia, the court
indicated that a reasonable time had to be allowed in order to establish the, neces.
sary proof of Wozar's claim. .
..We find no eviderce of.a deliberate disregard of
judicial authority," it said.j.
erification of documentary proof.
CENSORSHIP AID ANTI-NDISM BILLS DEFEATED IN ARKANSAS
A sweeping censorship bill and an anti-nudism biil' have been'defeated by..
Arkansas legislature at its current session:: The censorship measure would have pro?
hibited the publication or dissemination of any obscene material in any medium.of:.
communication whatsoever and would have also made it a crime to give information as
to where such material could be obtained.
The bill did not say who would judge the obscenity and any person could-have
the authority to ban magazines, movies, and other publications or entertairment, iny.
the hands of the prosecuting attorneys or. censorship boards..
The anti-mudism bill defined nudism as congregating with the body exposed
9 presence.of "one or more" of the opposite sex..
The proposal would also have
yed the publication
sale or
possession of literature promoting nudism.
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