Garner v. Board of Public Works of Los Angeles

Summary

The Court upheld Los Angeles's requirement that municipal employees disclose past or present membership in specified political organizations, reasoning that such information may bear on fitness and suitability for public service. It also upheld the loyalty oath because the challenged conduct had already been proscribed prospectively and the oath was treated as a qualification for employment rather than punishment. The Court construed the oath to include a scienter requirement and affirmed the judgments, while assuming that employees who had refused the oath would be allowed to retake it under that interpretation. Justice Douglas, joined by Justice Black, and Justices Frankfurter and Burton in separate opinions disputed the validity of the oath, principally because of its retrospective and allegedly punitive effect.