Below is a statement issued in the 1950s by the National Emergency Civil Liberties Committee (NECLC) on the rights of individuals in relation to the FBI. The Militant at the time reprinted this document. The NECLC was founded in 1951 to defend victims of the McCarthy witch-hunt. Prominent constitutional attorney Leonard Boudin served as its general counsel from 1954 until his death in 1989. The NECLC general counsel today are Michael Krinsky and Eric Lieberman.

The Emergency Civil Liberties Committee has received many letters and telephone calls from people who have been visited by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. These people indicated confusion about their obligations to their government and about their rights as citizens.

Since we believe that the average person as a rule does not know his duties or his rights concerning FBI interrogation, we offer this general information for those to whom it may be helpful.

You may feel, as many people do, that you have a moral obligation as a citizen to supply any governmental agency with all of the facts which would be helpful in a given situation, provided that neither your rights nor those of others are being violated. It is even possible that the inquiry concerns the application for government employment of someone with whom you are acquainted.

However, you frequently do not know the purpose of the inquiry, and the inquirer will rarely tell you in advance. Therefore, it is important for you to know that you are under no legal obligation to talk to representatives of the FBI or of any other governmental agency, unless you have been subpoenaed.

The FBI, unlike courts and grand juries, does not have the power of subpoena and of compulsory examination. You may decline an invitation to visit FBI agents or to receive them in your home or office.

Unfortunately, at the present time many FBI inquiries appear to be concerned with political associations rather than with obtaining facts for constructive purposes of criminal investigation. The very nature of political inquiries means that many of the questions will be of the sort which no citizen is, or should be, required to answer. The protections afforded to you by the Bill of Rights as interpreted by the Supreme Court in recent as well as earlier decisions are as available to you in such an interview as they would be in open court or before a Congressional body.

If you have any doubts as to the FBI's questions you may refuse to answer until your attorney has been consulted, or you may insist on having your attorney present during the interview. You may also ask to have the questions put in writing.

In determining your responsibility to answer questions, remember that there are no off-the-record conversations with the FBI. The agent in question is under a duty to make some report of his interrogation or interview. He may, possibly, be recording the conversation without your knowledge. Be most careful to be accurate. For the obvious reasons of civic duty, morality and personal safety, do not answer questions if you do not have personal knowledge of the facts. False statements, although made orally and not under oath, may be the basis for a criminal prosecution.

Finally, the use of investigative power by governmental agencies to intimidate or threaten is expressly forbidden by law. We suggest that you report any attempt at intimidation to the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee.  
 
 
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