[shadowgovt]

I disagree with the studios' reasons for doing it (it was dressed up as a patriotic move, but was fairly thinly-veiled anti-labor action intended to disrupt the growing trend towards unionization in the entertainment industry).

But as political affiliation was not (and for pretty obvious reasons, probably should not be, California's subsequent state-level decisions notwithstanding) a protected employment class, they certainly had the right to do it. The HUAC is a different story.

(You take away the studios' right to blacklist communists and you take away their right to blacklist KKK members at the same time. It's a step I'm not personally comfortable with. And especially in the modern era, when the technology is cheaper and more decentralized, I prefer to see the solution to such things be competition to the Hollywood system instead of tying Hollywood's hands on political matters.)