Lloyd Barenblatt, a college professor, was being questioned by the House Committee on Un-American Activities during the Communism scare in the United States. Barenblatt refused to answer questions about his religious and political beliefs, and Congress found him in contempt for impeding the investigation.

The Supreme Court, on June 8, 1959, upheld the conviction of Barenblatt, stating that his First Amendment rights were not violated. In Barenblatt v. United States, the court wrote that “where First Amendment rights are asserted to bar governmental interrogation, resolution of the issue always involves a balancing by the courts of the competing private and public interests at stake in the particular circumstances shown.”