Peter Chaunt v. United States

The defendant, Peter Chaunt, appeals from a judgment entered in the District Court for the Southern District of California which revoked a prior order admitting him to citizenship and cancelled his certificate of naturalization on the grounds that his naturalization had been procured by concealment of material facts and by willful misrepresentations. The record, which consists largely of testimony and documents offered by the Government, discloses the following pertinent facts:

The defendant, a native of Hungary, came to the United States in 1921 at the age of 22. During 1928 he worked on a Hungarian Communist daily paper, Uj Elore, and with the Young Communist League in Akron, Ohio. In 1929 and 1930 he had been arrested three times in the City of New Haven, Connecticut, charged in the first two instances with the violation of city ordinances and in the third with a general breach of the peace.

During 1930 and 1931 his name appeared in the Daily Worker in connection with some of his activities. On June 21, 1930 an article entitled, “For Offensive Strategy, by Peter Chaunt, District Organizer, District 15”, appeared in the Daily Worker. In 1931 he taught the subject “Leninism” at…