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The Senate Lobby Investigation Committee is a now defunct special committee that once operated within the United States Senate during the 1930s and 1940s with the purpose of investigating lobbyist activities. The committee was chaired by Hugo Black, and upon his appointment to the United States Supreme Court, it was chaired by Sherman Minton. According to professor of political science Linda C. Gugin, a Minton biographer, in practice the committee's investigations were politically motivated and directed against groups that were challenging New Deal legislation.〔Gugin (1997), p. 91〕 ==Black chairmanship== The committee's investigations made national news headlines several times, the first in mid-1935, as the committee launched a major probe into utility companies. These corporations were funding opposition to the Wheeler-Rayburn Act, a utility regulation bill pending before Congress. The committee alleged that the nation's major utility companies were conspiring to defeat the bill, and ordered Western Union to turn over all telegrams sent on behalf of the company for the committee to investigate.〔Gugin (1997), p. 92〕 After weeks of wrangling, which included the issuance of subpoenas and court injunctions, the committee obtained the telegrams and discovered that the utilities had spent over one million dollars to lobby for the bill's defeat. They also found money had been spent to send over five million fake letters and telegrams to senators, supposedly from concerned citizens, opposing the bill.〔Radcliff, p. 49〕 The Wheeler-Rayburn bill passed shortly after the debacle, which quickly led to the collapse and breakup of the nation's three largest utility companies.〔Gugin. p. 93〕 In 1936, the committee went a step further to prove that the same companies had improperly influenced Republicans in Congress. The committee subpoenaed telegrams sent by political opponents and their operatives, including the major Chicago law firm Winston, Straw, & Shaw. The firm launched legal action against the committee, claiming their Fourth Amendment Rights had been violated. They won their case in court and ended the committee's ability to issue mass subpoenas.〔Gugin (1997), p. 94〕 William Randolph Hearst, a prominent and wealthy media magnate, began attacking the committee though his newspapers because of what he called their "reckless attacks on freedom".〔 Minton led the effort to silence Hearst and delivered a speech attacking him for his support of the Republican Party. The committee also uncovered previously unrevealed links between the Farmers Independence Council of America, a group believed to be a nonpartisan opponent of President Roosevelt's efforts to reform agriculture, and the American Liberty League, which strongly opposed the New Deal.〔Special to the New York Times. ("Anti-New Dealers backed farm group" ), The New York Times. April 14, 1936. Page 1.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「United States Senate Lobby Investigation Committee」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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