Gibson v. Florida Legislative Investigation Committee

A Florida legislative committee (plaintiff), investigating suspected Communist infiltration, ordered Gibson (defendant), president of the Miami NAACP branch, to bring his branch's membership list to a hearing to help identify whether specific suspected Communists were members; Gibson refused on First Amendment freedom-of-association grounds and was held in contempt, sentenced to six months and a $1,200 fine. Only fourteen suspected Communists had ever been identified as occasionally attending meetings of the roughly 1,000-member Miami branch, and the Supreme Court granted certiorari.