By a 5–3 vote, the justices rejected the federal government's attempt to denaturalize William Schneiderman, a self-avowed communist.

[2] Schneiderman remained committed to communism throughout the period,[1] and in 1932 he ran on the Communist Party ticket for governor of Minnesota.

[3] In 1939, the federal government commenced denaturalization proceedings against him, arguing that his citizenship had been illegally procured because, as a communist, Schneiderman had not been "attached to the principles of the Constitution of the United States", as required by the Naturalization Act of 1906.

He was represented pro bono by Wendell Willkie, a previous Republican candidate for president; Solicitor General Charles Fahy argued on behalf of the government.

Although Stone accepted arguendo Murphy's "clear, unequivocal, and convincing" standard, he concluded that the government had met it.

In Stone's view, the record showed that Schneiderman was "well aware that he was a member of and aiding a party which taught and advocated the overthrow of the Government of the United States by force and violence.

Major newspapers took various views of the ruling: the St. Louis Star-Times praised it as "a triumph for American principles of freedom and justice", while The Philadelphia Inquirer criticized "its weakening effect on the safeguards which the Government seeks to establish against subversive elements".