[1] On December 14, 1948, Bloch appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) as counsel for Marion Bachrach.

At the time of Bachrach's testimony, she stated she was a writer in the national office of the Communist Party of the USA in New York City, where she also lived.

Nelson was (according to a HUAC committee member) a "head of the Communist Party in western Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio, and northern West Virginia.

He is an expert on so-called foreign groups and is currently working to keep the Tito Comimmists from jumping the line here as they did abroad"[3] He defended Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.

Two weeks before the date scheduled for their deaths, the Rosenbergs were visited by James V. Bennett, the Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

We solemnly declare, now and forever more, that we will not be coerced, even under pain of death, to bear false witness and to yield up to tyranny our rights as free Americans.