When Pete Seeger appeared before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1955, he refused to answer the committee's questions about personal beliefs based on the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of speech.
During the Cold War Era, The House Committee on Un-American Activities interrogated more than 3000 government officials, teachers, labor union leaders, artists and other people trying to purgue Communist ideas in America. Seeger refused to invoke the Fifth Amentment, which protects citizens from self-incrimination. Instead, he invoked the First Amendment and insisted that the Committee had no right to question him on his ideas or associations.