How did the us government respond to robert oppenheimer’s opposition to developing the hydrogen bomb?

The answer is: He was accused of disloyalty and lost his security clearance.

This happen during the period when general public were anxious that a lot of spies from the soviet union have invaded the united states  (red scarce).

At that time, the opposition of Robert Oppenheimer accused him of disloyalty and said that he's a part of Soviet union's spies that want to limit united states' technological development. Even though all Oppenheimer want is to stopped mass killings from hydrogen bomb to ever happen gain.

“i think it is very plausible that if there are five votes to end the death penalty, it could be with the people who are on the court right now,” - smith

so basically it is not clearly and consistently imposed

deflation   hope this