[1] Created during the period of the Second Red Scare (1946–1954), the act was one of many bills drafted with the intention of protecting the American government from the threat allegedly posed by international communists.

Senator Butler later proposed a bill aimed at the removal of Communists from leadership positions in labor unions, adding a third class, that of "communist-infiltrated organizations."

Afterwards, Democratic Senator Humphrey put forward a substitute to that bill with the intention of directly tackling the "root of evil," the Communist Party members.

The House of Representatives also made some additions to the bill, notably a section which listed the criteria for "determining what constitut[ed] membership in the Party and related organizations.

McAuliffe argues that the perceived gravity of the threat of Communism during the Cold War led some liberals to ignore the fact that the CCA suspended the citizenship rights of the Communist Party members.

"[2] An article published in the Michigan Law Review in 1955 suggested that the Communist Control Act was a "dramatic political gesture" rather than a genuine attempt to "kill Communism at its root.

Also, the Yale Law Journal underlined a number of instances during which a literal interpretation of key passages would have caused entire sections to fall because of the use of comprehensive, unspecific language.