George Anastaplo (November 7, 1925 – February 14, 2014)[1] was a professor at Loyola University Chicago School of Law and author who was famously denied admission for many years to the Illinois Bar.

The denial of his admission became a Supreme Court case, In re Anastaplo, in which he insisted that the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects the privacy of political affiliations, specifically, his refusal to answer questions about membership in the Communist Party.

Anastaplo's stand was based on constitutional principles and his consequent rejection of McCarthyism, and nobody alleged that he had been a member of the Communist Party.

[2][3] The son of Greek immigrants, Anastaplo served in the United States Army Air Corps during World War II as a navigator of B-17s and B-29s.

[3] This prompted a series of questions where the interviewers asked him about the nature of Communism in America to which he retorted that political dissent and even the right of revolution were part of the American constitutional heritage.

[3] In 1961 Professor Leo Strauss bolstered Anastaplo's spirits when he was petitioning for admission to the Illinois Bar by writing the two-sentence letter: "This is only to pay you my respects for your brave and just action.

The effect of the Court's 'balancing' here is that any State may now reject an applicant for admission to the Bar if he believes in the Declaration of Independence as strongly as Anastaplo and if he is willing to sacrifice his career and his means of livelihood in defense of the freedoms of the First Amendment.

I venture the suggestion that there are countless multitudes in this country, and all over the world, who would join Anastaplo's belief in the right of the people to resist by force tyrannical governments like those.

And I think the record clearly shows that conflict resulted, not from any fear on Anastaplo's part to divulge his own political activities, but from a sincere, and in my judgment correct, conviction that the preservation of this country's freedom depends upon adherence to our Bill of Rights.

It is such men as these who have most greatly honored the profession of the law-men like Malsherbes, who, at the cost of his own life and the lives of his family, sprang unafraid to the defense of Louis XVI against the fanatical leaders of the Revolutionary government of France---men like Charles Evans Hughes, Sr., later Mr. Chief Justice Hughes, who stood up for the constitutional rights of socialists to be socialists and public officials despite the threats and clamorous protests of self-proclaimed superpatriots---men like Charles Evans Hughes, Jr., and John W. Davis, who, while against everything for which the Communists stood, strongly advised the Congress in 1948 that it would be unconstitutional to pass the law then proposed to outlaw the Communist Party---men like Lord Erskine, James Otis, Clarence Darrow, and the multitude of others who have dared to speak in defense of causes and clients without regard to personal danger to themselves.

This trend must be halted if we are to keep faith with the Founders of our Nation and pass on to future generations of Americans the great heritage of freedom which they sacrificed so much to leave to us.