# Communist Control Act of 1954 *A 1954 federal statute that made membership in the Communist Party a federal disability.* The **Communist Control Act of 1954** (Public Law 83-637, 68 Stat. 775) is a federal statute enacted on August 24, 1954, from Senate bill S. 3706 of the 83rd Congress.[^1] Wikipedia's account records that Senator Hubert Humphrey introduced S. 3706 on July 6, 1954.[^2] President Eisenhower issued a statement upon signing the Act.[^3] The project's research dossier records two further points. Humphrey proposed the Senate substitute that extended the Act's sanction from communist-infiltrated organizations to Communist Party membership itself. The measure then passed the Senate 85–0 and the House 305–2.[^4] The project's at-issue record places the Act beside a January 2025 presidential action. It treats status-based federal classification as the mechanism common to both instruments. That comparison is the at-issue item's framing, not an established finding.[^5][^6] ## Who Wikipedia's account names Humphrey as the senator who introduced S. 3706.[^2] The research dossier attributes the Senate substitute to Humphrey and rates its confidence in that attribution, and in the statute itself, as high.[^4] The at-issue item identifies the proposer of the substitute as the author of the 1948 human-rights plank.[^5] President Eisenhower signed the measure and issued a statement on doing so.[^3] ## What The text of the Act is published as S. 3706 of the 83rd Congress and was enacted as Public Law 83-637, 68 Stat. 775.[^1] The dossier records that the Act is codified at 50 U.S.C. §§841–844.[^4] According to the dossier, the Senate substitute moved the sanction from organizations to individual membership in the Communist Party. The dossier describes the result as a status-based federal disability attaching to membership in an organization that had been lawful until then.[^4] The Act is the subject of an article titled *The Communist Control Act of 1954* in the University of Michigan Law Review.[^7] ## When - July 6, 1954: S. 3706 introduced in the Senate, according to Wikipedia's account.[^2] - August 12, 1954: passed by the Senate, according to the research dossier.[^4] - August 16, 1954: passed by the House, according to the research dossier.[^4] - August 24, 1954: enacted as Public Law 83-637, 68 Stat. 775.[^1] ## How many The research dossier records a Senate vote of 85–0 and a House vote of 305–2.[^4] The at-issue item gives the same Senate figure of 85–0.[^5] The dossier marks the vote counts and the statute as verified. It marks the stated legislative rationale as secondary-sourced and unverified against the Congressional Record.[^4] ## In the at-issue record At-issue item AI-Humphrey-027 states that the Act made membership in a political party a federal disability and passed the Senate 85–0. It also states that the Senate substitute extending the Act from organizations to individual members was proposed by the author of the 1948 human-rights plank.[^5] The item anchors the Act to the January 2025 presidential action *Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing*.[^6] It states that status-based federal classification is the mechanism at issue in both instruments.[^5] The record does not establish the rationale for the substitute that secondary accounts attribute to its author, and the dossier flags that account as unverified.[^4] ## Notes [^1]: Congress.gov, *S. 3706, 83rd Congress — Text* (Public Law 83-637, 68 Stat. 775, August 24, 1954) — the Act's text, public law number, Statutes at Large citation and enactment date. https://www.congress.gov/bill/83rd-congress/senate-bill/3706/text [^2]: Wikipedia, *Communist Control Act of 1954* — Humphrey's introduction of S. 3706 on July 6, 1954. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Control_Act_of_1954 [^3]: The American Presidency Project (Eisenhower Library), *Statement by the President Upon Signing the Communist Control Act of 1954* (1954) — the President's signing and statement. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/statement-the-president-upon-signing-the-communist-control-act-1954 [^4]: Minnesota wiki research dossier, *HHH_Waverly_Apex_Dossier_2026-09-02.md* §IV.4 (September 2, 2026; validated) — the Senate substitute's authorship and scope, codification at 50 U.S.C. §§841–844, Senate 85–0 (August 12, 1954), House 305–2 (August 16, 1954), and the rationale marked unverified. Project source; no URL in the pack. [^5]: Minnesota wiki at-issue record, *AI-Humphrey-027*, section *The Waverly Promise & the Boundary County Edition* — the item's statement of the Act, the 85–0 Senate vote, the substitute's author, and the anchor rationale. Project source; no URL in the pack. [^6]: The White House, *Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing* (presidential action, January 2025) — the instrument named as the at-issue anchor. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-radical-and-wasteful-government-dei-programs-and-preferencing/ [^7]: University of Michigan Law Review, *The Communist Control Act of 1954* (PDF) — law review article on the Act. https://repository.law.umich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=7685&context=mlr