stained the right of a municipality to bar from employment persons who
advise, advocate, or teach the violent overthrow of the government, or
who are members of, or become affiliated with any group doing so, and to
exact a loyalty oath of its employees. In Adler _v._ Board of
Education[233] the Court sustained the Civil Service Law of New York as
implemented by the so-called Feinberg Law of 1949.[234] The former makes
ineligible in any public school any member of an organization advocating
the overthrow of government by force, violence, or any unlawful means.
The Feinberg Law requires the Board of Regents of the State (1) to adopt
and enforce rules for the removal of ineligible persons; (2) to
promulgate a list of banned organizations; (3) to make membership in
any such organization prima facie evidence of disqualification for
employment in the public schools. Referring to the Garner Case above,
Justice Minton, for the Court, said: "We adhere to that case. A teacher
works in a sensitive area in the schoolroom. There he shapes the
attitude of young minds towards the society in which they live. In this,
the state has a vital concern. It must preserve the integrity of the
schools. That the school authorities have the right and the duty to
screen the officials, teachers, and employees as to their fitness to
maintain the integrity of the schools as a part of ordered society,
cannot be doubted. One's associates, past and present, as well as one's
conduct, may properly be considered in determining fitness and loyalty.
From time immemorial, one's reputation has been determined in part by
the company he keeps. In the employment of officials and teachers of the
school system, the state may very properly inquire into the company they
keep, and we know of no rule, constitutional or otherwise, that prevents
the state, when determining the fitness and loyalty of such persons,
from considering the organizations and persons with whom they
associate."[235]

Group Libel

In 1952 in Beauharnais _v._ Illinois[236] the Court sustained an
Illinois statute which makes it a crime to exhibit in a public place any
publication which "portrays depravity, criminality, unchastity, or lack
of virtue of a class of citizens, of any race, color, creed or religion"
or which "exposes the citizens of any race, color, creed or religion to
contempt, derision, or obloquy." The act was treated by the State
Supreme Court as a form of criminal libel, with the