YES, MR.DEMILLE (1959)

296 Yes, Mr. DeMille dues or assessments to support or oppose any political party..." or "for publicly opposing any employer or union/' Hollywood had by now grown accustomed to the framework in which DeMille was wont to move. It had observed him long enough to know that predictions as to his behavior were never safe. One might have expected a man, no matter how stalwart, to give in to judicial opinion. DeMille did not take to cover when first one court, then another, ruled against him. He suf- fered three lower-court defeats. Next, the United States Supreme Court declined to take his case, a refusal which meant that in the court's view DeMille's individual guarantees under the Constitution had not been prejudiced by AFRA. DeMille did not waver in the holiness of his cause. If any- thing was amiss it was a judiciary capable of rendering a ver- dict that deprived a man of his right to work, and "therefore his right to life itself." The courts had said that AFRA in levying the assessment had not interfered with DeMille's right of suffrage or discussion. He could vote for the measure, even though his dollar was working against it. DeMille pooh-poohed the distinction; his dollar nulli- fied his vote, he insisted. Apart from the fact his stand was four-square on a matter of principle, it could not be denied that a single vote influenced by the union s use of the DeMille dollar would have the effect of voiding DeMille's ballot. Judge Wilson of the Los Angeles Superior Court in ruling for AFRA said the circumstances do not permit a complaint by anyone who is still permitted to vote as he pleases. On the issues, the editorial writers of virtually every major newspaper went to work with considerable gusto. They were about evenly divided on the court's logic but almost all saw a danger in political assessments of this variety. The Saturday Evening Post reflected the majority thinking by posing a shrewd and interesting question. "Suppose the assessment had been ten