Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/383/169/
Timestamp: 2019-04-18 14:44:18+00:00

Document:
Respondent, a former Congressman, was convicted on several counts of violating the conflict of interest statute (18 U.S.C. § 281) and on one count of conspiring to defraud the United States (18 U.S.C. § 371). The conspiracy charge involved an alleged agreement whereby respondent and another Congressman would attempt to influence the Justice Department to dismiss pending savings and loan company mail fraud indictments. As part of the conspiracy, respondent allegedly delivered for pay a speech in Congress favorable to loan companies. The Government contended and adduced proof to show that the speech was delivered to serve private interests; that respondent was not acting in good faith, and that he did not prepare or deliver the speech as a Congressman would ordinarily do. The Court of Appeals set aside the conviction on the conspiracy count as being barred by Art. I, § 6, of the Constitution, providing that "for any Speech or Debate in either House," Senators and Representatives "shall not be questioned in any other Place," and ordered retrial on the substantive counts.
1. The Speech or Debate Clause precludes judicial inquiry into the motivation for a Congressman's speech, and prevents such a speech from being made the basis of a criminal charge against a Congressman for conspiracy to defraud the Government by impeding the due discharge of its functions. Pp. 383 U. S. 173-185.
(a) The Speech or Debate Clause, which emerged from the long struggle for parliamentary supremacy, embodies a privilege designed to protect members of the legislature against prosecution by a possibly unfriendly executive and conviction by a possibly hostile judiciary. Pp. 383 U. S. 177-180.
(b) The privilege, which will be broadly construed to effectuate its purposes, Kilbourn v. Thompson, 103 U. S. 168; Tenney v. Brandhove, 341 U. S. 367, was created not primarily to avoid private suits as in those cases, but to prevent legislative intimidation by and accountability to the other branches of government. Pp. 383 U. S. 180-182.
(c) The Speech or Debate Clause forecloses inquiry not only into the "content" of a congressional speech, but into circumstances involving the motives for making it. Pp. 383 U. S. 182-183.
(d) Prosecution under a general criminal statute involving inquiry into the motives for and circumstances surrounding a congressional speech is barred even though the gravamen of the offense is the alleged conspiracy, rather than the speech itself. Pp. 383 U. S. 184-185.
3. This Court does not review the Court of Appeals' determination that the substantive counts be retried because of the prejudicial effect thereon resulting from the unconstitutional aspects of the conspiracy count, since the Government does not dispute that determination in this proceeding. Pp. 383 U. S. 185-186.
337 F.2d 180, affirmed and remanded.
defraud the United States, 18 U.S.C. § 371 (1964 ed.). [Footnote 2] The Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit set aside the conviction on the conspiracy count, 337 F.2d 180, holding that the Government's allegation that Johnson had conspired to make a speech for compensation on the floor of the House of Representatives was barred by Art. I, § 6, of the Federal Constitution, which provides that, "for any Speech or Debate in either House, they [Senators and Representatives] shall not be questioned in any other Place." The Court of Appeals ordered a new trial on the other counts, having found that the evidence adduced under the unconstitutional aspects of the conspiracy count had infected the entire prosecution.
and loan associations in the House, and that the company distributed copies to allay apprehensions of potential depositors. The two Congressmen approached the Attorney General and the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Criminal Division and urged them "to review" the indictment. For these services, Johnson received substantial sums in the form of a "campaign contribution" and "legal fees." The Government contended, and presumably the jury found, that these payments were never disclosed to the Department of Justice, and that the payments were not bona fide campaign contributions or legal fees, but were made simply to "buy" the Congressman.
omitting certain lines of questioning or excluding certain evidence. The conspiracy theory depended upon a showing that the speech was made solely or primarily to serve private interests, and that Johnson, in making it, was not acting in good faith, that is, that he did not prepare or deliver the speech in the way an ordinary Congressman prepares or delivers an ordinary speech. Johnson's defense quite naturally was that his remarks were no different from the usual congressional speech, and, to rebut the prosecution's case, he introduced speeches of several other Congressmen speaking to the same general subject, argued that his talk was occasioned by an unfair attack upon savings and loan associations in a Washington, D.C., newspaper, and asserted that the subject matter of the speech dealt with a topic of concern to his State and to his constituents. We see no escape from the conclusion that such an intensive judicial inquiry, made in the course of a prosecution by the Executive Branch under a general conspiracy statute, violates the express language of the Constitution and the policies which underlie it.
"That the Freedom of Speech, and Debates or Proceedings in Parliament ought not to be impeached or questioned in any Court or Place out of Parliament."
1 W. & M., Sess. 2, c. 2.
executive, or judiciary; the next and most difficult task is to provide some practical security for each against the invasion of the others. What this security ought to be is the great problem to be solved."
(Cooke ed.) The legislative privilege, protecting against possible prosecution by an unfriendly executive and conviction by a hostile judiciary, is one manifestation of the "practical security" for ensuring the independence of the legislature.
In part because the tradition of legislative privilege is so well established in our polity, there is very little judicial illumination of this clause. Clearly no precedent controls the decision in the case before us. This Court first dealt with the clause in Kilbourn v. Thompson, 103 U. S. 168, a suit for false imprisonment alleging that the Speaker and several members of the House of Representatives ordered the petitioner to be arrested for contempt of Congress. The Court held first that Congress did not have power to order the arrest, and, second, that, were it not for the privilege, the defendants would be liable. The difficult question was whether the participation of the defendants in passing the resolution ordering the arrest was "speech or debate." The Court held that the privilege should be read broadly, to include not only "words spoken in debate," but anything "generally done in a session of the House by one of its members in relation to the business before it." 103 U.S. at 103 U. S. 204.
rights of free speech and to petition the Legislature for redress of grievances. . . ."
"The claim of an unworthy purpose does not destroy the privilege. . . . The holding of this Court in Fletcher v. Peck, 6 Cranch 87, 10 U. S. 130, that it was not consonant with our scheme of government for a court to inquire into the motives of legislators, has remained unquestioned."
Kilbourn and Tenney indicate that the legislative privilege will be read broadly to effectuate its purposes; neither case deals, however, with a criminal prosecution based upon an allegation that a member of Congress abused his position by conspiring to give a particular speech in return for remuneration from private interests. However reprehensible such conduct may be, we believe the Speech or Debate Clause extends at least so far as to prevent it from being made the basis of a criminal charge against a member of Congress of conspiracy to defraud the United States by impeding the due discharge of government functions. The essence of such a charge in this context is that the Congressman's conduct was improperly motivated, and, as will appear, that is precisely what the Speech or Debate Clause generally forecloses from executive and judicial inquiry.
"[t]he law of seditious libel was interpreted with the utmost harshness against those whose political or religious tenets were distasteful to the government."
"could not be made the foundation of civil or criminal proceedings. . . . And a conspiracy to make such statements would not make the person guilty of it amenable to the criminal law."
"I am clearly of opinion that we ought not to allow it to be doubted for a moment that the motives or intentions of members of either House cannot be inquired into by criminal proceedings with respect to anything they may do or say in the House."
"(15) It was a part of said conspiracy that the said THOMAS F. JOHNSON should . . . render services, for compensation, . . . to-wit, the making of a speech, defending the operations of Maryland's 'independent' savings and loan associations, the financial stability and solvency thereof, and the reliability and integrity of the 'commercial insurance' on investments made by said 'independent' savings and loan associations, on the floor of the House of Representatives."
count. [Footnote 16] In these circumstances, we find no occasion to review the Court of Appeals' assessment of the record in this respect.
For the foregoing reasons, we affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeals and remand the case to the District Court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
"Whoever, being a Member of or Delegate to Congress, . . . directly or indirectly receives or agrees to receive, any compensation for any services rendered or to be rendered, either by himself or another, in relation to any proceeding, contract, claim, controversy, charge, accusation, arrest, or other matter in which the United States is a party or directly or indirectly interested, before any department, agency, court martial, officer, or any civil, military, or naval commission, shall be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than two years, or both, and shall be incapable of holding any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States."
Only the question of the applicability of the Speech or Debate Clause to the prosecution of Johnson is before us. The Court of Appeals affirmed the convictions of codefendants Edlin and Robinson, whose appeals were consolidated with that of Johnson and, except for a brief as amicus curiae submitted by Edlin, questions raised in those cases have not been presented to us. The defendant Boykin took no appeal from his conviction.
"Q. What, if anything, did Congressman Johnson do with the material which Mr. Robinson brought in and gave to him? A. As I recall, Mr. Johnson said that his administrative assistant . . . would go over the material, too, and, if I am not mistaken, Mr. Johnson called him in, and Buarque took the material, and I left the office with Mr. Buarque to discuss it some more."
"Q. After that meeting, did you at any time thereafter have any contact either with Congressman Johnson or his office with regard to the speech? A. I telephoned a time or two there, and I think I was called by Mr. Buarque and asked him about certain figures that the Institute -- background material that might be supplied, and I did supply additional material, and I believe Mr. Buarque sent me a draft, himself, with certain places, blank places for figures to be filled in. We had a discussion about some of the technical phases [sic] and information, statistical information and so forth."
"Q. You supplied some of the facts and figures for the draft that Mr. Buarque sent you? A. Yes."
"Q. What did you do with that draft once you had looked it over? A. Returned it."
See also cross-examination of Manual Buarque, App. 488-494; cross-examination of codefendant Robinson, App. 772-775; cross-examination of defendant Johnson, Transcript 79-93.
"Q. And did you not tell Mr. Heflin, when he came to see you in your office after that luncheon, that he should work with Mr. Buarque on the preparation of the speech which was ultimately given on June 30? A. My statement is the same as it has always been -- that Mr. Heflin came to my office, representing himself as a public relations man, for a certain institute of Independent Savings and Loan Associations. He had the article of one of the local newspapers. A very unfair attack which he claimed had been made on savings and loans. He talked with me a very short time. I told him that Mr. Buarque, my administrative assistant, did all of my writing, all of the conversations, and if there were any answers to be made -- he went out with me to the next room, met Mr. Buarque, and I left the two together."
"Q. You told him, did you not, that he should work with Mr. Buarque on the matter, since Mr. Buarque prepared your speeches? A. I told him at the time to discuss it with Mr. Buarque, and any arrangements Mr. Buarque wanted to make, why, he, of course, would be cooperative with him."
"Q. Now, you say that, at that time -- I assume you meant at the time of the speech -- that one savings association meant nothing more to you than another. Is that what you referred to? A. Not only then, but following the speech, too."
"Q. I believe you testified on direct examination that you did not know the name of First Continental Savings and Loan or First Colony Savings and Loan at the time this speech was delivered on June 30, is that your testimony? A. I think my testimony is that one name did not mean more than another."
"Q. Now, your speech was finally delivered or submitted to the clerk, and it was printed in the Congressional Record, and it stresses the value of commercial mortgage guaranty insurance, does it not? A. I think it has a reference to it, yes."
"Q. Isn't it a fact that, at the time of the speech, First Continental and First Colony were the only independent savings and loan associations in the State of Maryland which carried commercial mortgage guaranty insurance? A. I have no knowledge of that and did not know at the time."
"Q. You have no knowledge of that? A. None whatever."
"Q. As a matter of fact, that language in your speech, Congressman, was a part of the language which Mr. Edlin emphasized in his reprint, was it not? A. May I say that I did not see any of the so-called 'reprints.'"
"Q. Congressman, do you mean to tell the jury that Mr. Buarque put that language in the speech about three indicted institutions and none convicted, and you did not inquire as to which particular institutions they were? A. He did not tell me which they were, the names."
"Q. Well, let me ask you this: how could you, if you did not know which institutions were under indictment, how could you make this statement in your speech: "
"'I personally do not know any of these institutions nor any of the circumstances leading to their respective indictments. I hold no brief for any of them, one way or another.'"
"That is the language of your speech, is it not? A. Yes, I said that is the prepared speech which had been testified that Mr. Buarque, with some help from Heflin, prepared."
"I submit to you, members of the jury, there is no other logical explanation you can make but that that speech was made solely for the purposes of Mr. Kenneth Edlin. It was a day's work for a day's pay for the man to whom he was selling his Congressional Office and his Congressional influence."
"Congressman Johnson has claimed on the stand in this case that he did not then know that the First Colony Savings and Loan Association was then under indictment."
"Now, you will recall the language in the speech itself that, out of 400 independent savings and loan associations in Maryland, exactly three of them have been indicted, and none convicted."
"[']Personally, I do not know any of these indicted institutions, nor any of the circumstances leading to their respective indictments. I hold no brief for any of them one way or the other.[']"
"Congressman Johnson claimed under oath, Members of the Jury, that he did not even bother to check the facts to ascertain whether he could truthfully make such a statement in his speech."
"If so, I submit to you, it was utterly and completely irresponsible and reprehensible, but the Government submits that that is not so, and that that was not a fact. The Government submits that Congressman Johnson did know at that time that both First Colony and Mr. Edlin were then under indictment in this very Court, and that he nevertheless made those statements in the speech which he delivered on June 30, 1960."
"Those statements, Members of the Jury, the Government submits were completely untrue and deceitful."
"Q. Now, Congressman, you told Mr. Estabrook on December 20, 1961, in London, did you not, that this speech had been made at the urging of several of your own people or of your own constituents? Is that not a fact? A. Which conference are you speaking of with Mr. Estabrook?"
"Q. As a matter of fact, then, except for Mr. Buarque, whom you term a constituent, no constituent of yours ever spoke to you about making that speech on the floor of the House of Congress, is that not correct? A. It could be. I do not recall."
"Q. You would be -- you would not deny it? A. No."
"Q. Is it not a fact that, prior to that speech, Congressman, you had never discussed savings and loan programs or problems with any of your constituents on the Eastern Shore of Maryland? A. Oh, I think possibly I had. I do not know to what degree, but I want to say, too, that the speech you refer to, there was a motivation that Mr. Buarque testified that I was interested in a statewide election for the Senate in 1964."
See generally C. Wittke, The History of English Parliamentary Privilege (Ohio State Univ.1921); Neale, The Commons' Privilege of Free Speech in Parliament, in Tudor Studies (Seton-Watson ed.1924).
Compare The King v. Boston, 33 Commw.L.R. 386 (Austl.1923); The Queen v. White, 13 Sup.Ct. R.322 (N. S.W. 1875); Regina v. Bunting, 7 Ont. 524 (1885), for commonwealth cases dealing with the general question of liability of legislators for bribery in distinguishable contexts. See 78 Harv.L.Rev. 1473, 1474.
"And we hereby will not draw the true Liberties of Parliament-men into question, to-wit, for such matters which they do or speak in a parliamentary manner. But, in this case, there was a conspiracy between the Defendants to slander the state and to raise sedition and discord between the king, his peers, and people, and this was not a parliamentary course."
"That every of the Defendants shall be imprisoned during the king's pleasure: Sir John Elliot to be imprisoned in the Tower of London, and the other Defendants in other prisons."
See the account in Taswell-Langmead's English Constitutional History (Plucknett ed.1960), at 376-378. After the Restoration, some 38 years after the trial, Parliament resolved that the judgment "was an illegal judgment, and against the freedom and privilege of Parliament." The House of Lords reversed the convictions in 1668. See Taswell-Langmead, supra, at 378, note 55.
See Holdsworth, supra, at 503-511.
Compare Thornhill v. Alabama, 310 U. S. 88, and New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U. S. 254, for expressions of the central importance to our political system of uninhibited political expression as guaranteed to the general populace by the First and Fourteenth Amendments.
"That suits, accusements, condemnations, executions, fines, amerciaments, punishments, corrections, grievances, charges, and impositions, put or had, or hereafter to be put or had, unto or upon the said Richard, and to every other of the person or persons afore specified that now be of this present Parliament, or that of any Parliament hereafter shall be, for any bill, speaking, reasoning, or declaring of any matter or matters concerning the Parliament to be communed and treated of, be utterly void and of none effect."
"And that it extends to indemnify all and every the Members of both Houses of Parliament, in all Parliaments, for and touching all Bills, speaking, reasoning, or declaring of any Matter or Matters in and concerning the Parliament, to be communed and treated of, and is only a declaratory law of the antient and necessary Rights and Privileges of Parliament."
I Hatsell, Precedents of Proceedings in the House of Commons 86-87 (1786); see Taswell-Langmead, supra, at 378, note 55. The central importance of Strode's case in English constitutional history is persuasive evidence that the parliamentary privilege meant more than merely preventing libel and treason prosecutions.
The Government, however, did introduce a reprint of the speech in its case-in-chief, in order to show how the coconspirators made use of it. Certain portions were shown to be outlined in red because, as the prosecution's witness testified, "these were the points most pertinent to what we were trying to put across, and for ease in the person's reading it." App. 259. The use of a copy of the speech in this context necessarily required the jury to read those portions and to reflect upon its substance.
Cf. Note, The Bribed Congressman's Immunity from Prosecution, 75 Yale L.J. 335, 347-38 (1965).
"And so the question that we brought to the Court, and the only question that we think is properly involved in this case now, revolves around the taking of money to give a speech on the floor of Congress."
Question from the Bench: "Well, was there [to be] a new trial on the other phase of it?"
Government Counsel: "It [the Court of Appeals] ordered a new trial on the other phase. And we have not brought that issue here. We reserved it in our petition, but we did not argue it, I might say, largely because it cannot be determined without reading the whole record. The question in this case which we did bring here, and which we think is the question involved, is this: Article 1, Section 6, of the Constitution provides that, for any speech or debate in either House, no member of Congress shall be questioned in any other place. And, as we view it, the question is, does that Speech or Debate Clause mean that Congress is without power under the Constitution to make it a crime triable in court for a Congressman to take money to make a speech?"
and content -- was violative of the Speech or Debate Clause. I also join the Court in its remand of the conspiracy count for a new trial, this time purged of offensive matter. The Court's refusal to decide the validity of the conviction under the seven substantive counts, however, prompts me to dissent. In my view, the conflict of interest counts are properly before us, raise important questions, and should be resolved now, since the respondent will probably raise these issues on his forthcoming reprosecution.
the respondent himself specifically urged this Court to consider the issues in his brief on the merits, pp. 100-101 and n. 86, devoted 33 pages of argument to this phase of the case and addressed himself to the questions on oral argument. Under these unique circumstances, I think it is our duty carefully to scrutinize all the facts and issues involved in the prosecution.
After reading the record, it is my conclusion that the Court of Appeals erred in determining that the evidence concerning the speech infected the jury's judgment on the substantive counts. The evidence amply support the prosecution's theory and the jury's verdict on these count -- that the respondent received over $20,000 for attempting to have the Justice Department dismiss an indictment against his coconspirators, without disclosing his role in the enterprise. This is the classic example of a violation of § 281 by a Member of the Congress. [Footnote 2/2] See May v. United States, 175 F.2d 994, 1006 (C.A. D.C. Cir.); United States v. Booth, 148 F. 112, 117 (Cir.Ct.D.Ore.).
The arguments of government counsel and the court's instructions separating the conspiracy from the substantive counts seem unimpeachable. The speech was a minor part of the prosecution. There was nothing in it to inflame the jury, and the respondent pointed with pride to it as evidence of his vigilance in protecting the financial institutions of his State. The record further reveals that the trial participants were well aware that a finding of criminality on one count did not authorize similar conclusions as to other counts, and I believe that this salutary principle was conscientiously followed. Therefore, I would affirm the convictions on the substantive counts.
I confess to some surprise that the Government almost abandoned these issues when in this Court, even though the major question in the case is the application of the Speech or Debate Clause. In the first place, this Court has not had occasion to deal with the conflict of interest statutes as applied to a Member of Congress since 1906, Burton v. United States, 202 U. S. 344, and they remain viable although lately revised, see Manning, Federal Conflict of Interest Law 14-73 (1964). Moreover, the Government itself has argued strenuously and successfully in many cases that an erroneous conviction on one count does not vitiate a conviction on other counts, especially where concurrent sentences are involved, see, e.g., United States v. Romano, 382 U. S. 136; United States v. Gainey, 380 U. S. 63, 380 U. S. 65; Sinclair v. United States, 279 U. S. 263, 279 U. S. 299; Barnard v. United States, 342 F.2d 309 (C.A. 9th Cir.), certiorari denied, 382 U.S. 948. There are, in addition, numerous cases in which the issue was raised in this Court and the petitioner defendant was denied certiorari.
The sentence given was lenient -- six months on each count, but all to run concurrently. The conspiracy statute, 18 U.S.C. § 371, authorizes a five-year prison term and a $10,000 fine, and the conflict of interest statute in effect at the trial permitted a two-year sentence and a $10,000 fine for each violation, 18 U.S.C. § 281.

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