"Void for Vagueness"

In an 8-1 decision last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington struck a hard blow at the U.S. Department of Justice's celebrated case against Far East Expert Owen Lattimore. The court upheld District Judge Luther W. Youngdahl's dismissal of the key count in a perjury indictment against the former State Department consultant. Said the court: the charge that Lattimore lied when he told the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee that he was not a "sympathizer" or "promoter" of Communism was "void for vagueness"; the indictment should have defined its terms.

By the same vote, the court also upheld Youngdahl's dismissal of a charge that Lattimore lied when he denied that a 1937 visit to Red headquarters in Yenan, China was made by prearrangement with the "Communist Party." Properly drawn (i.e., based on Lattimore's specific testimony), it should have read "Communist authorities," the court held. Two other counts dismissed by Youngdahl were reinstated by 5-4 decisions, leaving five counts of the indictment still standing.

Although the Justice Department can 1) go to trial on the five counts, and 2) still appeal the dismissals to the U.S.

Supreme Court, U.S. attorneys were disappointed. Their frustration was all the keener because the men now working on the case are not to blame for the carelessly drawn indictment. The case was originally presented to a grand jury in 1952. A key man in its preparation: Lawyer Roy M. Cohn, then a special Assistant to the Attorney General, now Senator Joe McCarthy's right-hand man.

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