 Instead, Carliner went first to American University and then to the University of Virginia, where he transferred to the law school before obtaining his bachelor's degree.While in college and law school, he continued to be active in left-wing politics against white supremacy and militarism, including organizing students for a statewide Virginia Youth Conference in Charlottesville.This activity earned him the enmity of the university's dean, Ivey Lewis, and in 1940 he was expelled from the university after he was arrested for passing handbills in "the colored section of town," as the police report had it.