Bridges, Harry, 1901-1990
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Biography
Harry Renton Bridges, also known as Alfred Renton Byrant Bridges, came to the United States in 1920 from Australia where he had been a seaman and involved in union activities.
Bridges continued to be active on the docks in fighting for labor rights and was instrumental in getting the International Longshore Association (ILA), an affiliate of the AF of L, recognized as the bargaining unit for the entire Pacific coast. He became president of ILA Local 34-36 and in 1936 its Pacific Coast president. In 1937, the ILA was expelled from the AF OF L and affiliated with the CIO. That same year the Pacific Coast ILA became the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union (ILWU). Harry Bridges served as its international president and maintained that position until his retirement in 1977. His long union career was interrupted by 17 years of court cases from 1938-1955. It was during that time the U.S. government made four unsuccessful attempts to deport Bridges from the United States.
The first attempt occurred in 1938 when the Assistant Secretary of Labor issued a warrant for Bridges' arrest. It was based on Bridges' alleged violation of the Act of October 16, 1918, amended June 5, 1920, whereby an alien was subject to deportation for belonging to an organization that advocated the violent overthrow of the government. The government claimed Bridges was a member of the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA) (through all four deportation proceedings, Bridges denied membership). At that time, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) was part of the Department of Labor. Bridges' case was not heard until the Supreme Court of the United States reached its decision in the Joseph Strecker Case: past membership in the CPUSA was not grounds for deportation. On June 12, 1939, Bridges' arrest warrant was amended to read past and present membership in the CPUSA.
Bridges' lawyers were Carol King, Aubrey Grossman, and Richard Gladstein. James M. Landis, Dean of the Harvard Law School, was appointed trial examiner and presided over the hearing (July 10-September 14, 1939). Judge Landis cleared Bridges of the charges that he had been or was currently a member of the CPUSA and was therefore not subject to deportation, at least not under Sec. 2 of the Act of October 16, 1918. The judgment was sent to the Secretary of Labor, Frances Perkins, who dismissed the case against Bridges on January 8, 1940.
As a result of the hearing and subsequent judgment, the House passed a bill which explicitly named Harry Bridges and directed the Attorney General to arrest Bridges on the grounds that he was harmful to the U.S. From the House it went to the Senate Committee on Immigration which refused to recommend its adoption, under the advice of the Attorney General's office. During this same period the INS was placed under the direction of the Department of Justice.
Amendments were made to the bill which essentially deleted Bridges' name. The bill passed and became law as the Alien Registration Act of 1940 or, as it was commonly called, the Smith Act (see copy in filed folder no. 3; box no. 5). It did what the previous legislation had tried to do: make Bridges subject to deportation for being an alien who belonged to or affiliated with an organization, past or present, that advocated the overthrow of the government by force or violence. In effect the legislation overruled the Supreme Court's decision in the Strecker Case.
As soon as the Smith Act went into effect, the Attorney General's office ordered the FBI to investigate Bridges for any evidence that could be used to indict him. A warrant for Bridges' arrest was issued on February 12, 1941; two days later he was released under a $3000 bond. The second of the four deportation proceedings began on March 31, 1941 and ended on June 12, 1941, presided over by Judge Charles B. Sears in San Francisco. King, Grossman and Gladstein, who defended Bridges in the first hearing, continued to represent him.
Judge Sears concluded that Bridges was subject to deportation because he belonged to and affiliated with organizations that taught and advocated the overthrow of the U.S. government, specifically the CPUSA and the Marine Workers' Industrial Union.
Bridg es' lawyers filed briefs before the Board of Immigration Appeals. Oral arguments began on November 24, 1941 and the hearing continued until January 3, 1942. Ruling that Bridges was not previously or presently affiliated with any subversive organization, the board ordered the warrant and bond cancelled and the deportation order stayed until the Attorney General dismissed the case.
On May 28, 1942, Attorney General Francis Biddle overturned the decision of the INS Board of Appeals agreeing with Judge Sears' ruling that Bridges was subject to deportation. He ordered Bridges to be deported from the U.S. to Australia at the expense of the Federal government.
A Writ of Habeas Corpus was filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Southern Division on July 13, 1942. On February 8, 1943, it was denied by Presiding Judge Martin I. Welsh, who ruled that Bridges had received a fair hearing. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed Judge Welsh's decision. By this time Lee Pressman, general counsel for the CIO, joined in the Bridges defense. Bridges' lawyers petitioned and were granted a Writ of Certiorari by the Supreme Court of the United States. Pressman and Carol King argued Bridges' case. On June 18, 1945, the Supreme Court reversed the decision of the lower courts, ruling that the term affiliation was used incorrectly according to statute and that Bridges had received an unfair hearing in reference to CPUSA membership. A few months later, Bridges applied for and was admitted as a naturalized citizen of the U.S. Henry Schmidt and J.R. Robertson acted as his witnesses to the naturalization proceedings.
Criminal charges (#32117-H) were brought against Bridges, Schmidt and Robertson by a federal grand jury. They were accused of perjury and conspiring against the U.S. in order to obtain citizenship for Bridges by fraudulently concealing his membership in the CPUSA. On the same date that Bridges et al. were indicted (May 25, 1949), Frank J. Hennessy, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California, filed a civil action suit against Bridges declaring that Bridges had procured his citizenship under false pretenses by stating that he was not affiliated with or belonged to the CPUSA. In turn, Bridges filed a motion to dismiss the complaint. On October 12, 1949, Judge George B. Harris denied the complaint and ordered a stay on the civil denaturalization proceedings until the criminal proceedings were final. The jury found Bridges et al. guilty and on June 16, 1950 Judge Harris issued orders to revoke Bridges' citizenship.
Bridges' lawyers, Norman Leonard (of Gladstein, Andersen and Leonard), Vincent W. Hallinan and James Martin MacInnis appealed the decision before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which upheld the lower court's decision. However, when the case was brought before the Supreme Court of the U.S., and argued by Norman Leonard and Telford Taylor, the Supreme Court reversed the lower court's ruling on the grounds that the Wartime Suspension of Limitations Act, under which the charges against Bridges et al. were brought, was not applicable in the case. The Supreme Court ruled that the Court of Appeals judgment be reversed and that the District Court dismiss the indictment.
With the Supreme Court ruling, Bridges could focus his attention on getting the civil suit dismissed. On August 12, 1954, however, Judge Hamilin denied a motion for dismissal. In the hearing which followed (June 20-July 22, 1955), Judge Louis E. Goodman declared that the government failed to prove Bridges was a member of the CPUSA and therefore his naturalization status was valid and not fraudulently procured. This was the last of the four deportation proceedings that Bridges had to endure.
From the guide to the Harry Renton Bridges Papers, 1938-1955, (Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research.)
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Subjects:
- Aliens
- Deportation
- Labor
- Stevedores
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Places:
- United States (as recorded)
- United States (as recorded)
- United States (as recorded)
