California has voted to eliminate a Cold War-era law that allows state workers to be fired if they are found to be communists.

The California State Assembly voted narrowly in favor of approving Assembly Bill 22 Monday, introduced by Assemblyman Rob Bonta. The bill received a 41-vote majority and it will now go to the Senate.

The 1953 law was a result of the ‘Red Scare’ in the 1940s and ’50s which was spearheaded by Senator Joseph McCarthy and allowed for public employees to be fired for being a member of the Communist Party.

The existing law says a public employee could be be dismissed if “he or she advocates or is knowingly a member of the Communist Party or of an organization which, during the time of his or her membership, the employee knows advocates the overthrow of the Government of the United States or of any state by force or violence.”

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The bill calls for the removal of the Communist Party reference as well as the existing text which states an employee can be called before a governing body to “answer, under oath, specified questions, including questions related to knowing membership in the Communist Party.”

Some of the Assembly Republicans argued against changing the law.

"This bill is blatantly offensive to all Californians," Republican Assemblyman Travis Allen said. "Communism stands for everything that the United States stands against."

Republican Assemblyman Randy Voepel said communists were “still a threat.”

The news has been met with mixed reaction online. While some support modernising the law, others fear the bill spells disaster.



