Robert Shelton v. United States

BURGER, Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal from conviction and judgment after trial in the District Court for contempt of Congress growing out of refusal to answer questions asked by the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee. *

Shelton, a copy editor of a New York newspaper, was subpoenaed and appeared, first in executive session in New York City on December 7, 1955, and later in open sessions of the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee in Washington, about a month later. At both hearings he refused to answer questions on the subject of membership in the Communist Party and as to whether he had…