Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/396/64/
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 14:41:07+00:00

Document:
Petitioner challenges his 1955 conviction under 18 U.S.C. § 1001 for falsely and fraudulently denying affiliation with the Communist Party in an affidavit he filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), pursuant to § 9(h) of the National Labor Relations Act. Section 9(h), later repealed, provided that a union could not draw upon the jurisdiction of the NLRB unless each union officer filed with the NLRB an affidavit stating "that he is not a member of the Communist Party or affiliated with such party. . . ." The District Court set aside the conviction. It distinguished Dennis v. United States, 384 U. S. 855; decided that § 9(h), which had been upheld in American Communications Assn. v. Douds, 339 U. S. 382, could no longer be thought constitutionally valid, particularly in light of United States v. Brown, 381 U. S. 437, and concluded that the Government had no right to ask the questions which petitioner answered falsely in his affidavit. The Court of Appeals reversed, since it found "no significant differences" between this case and Dennis, supra, and therefore thought it unnecessary to consider the constitutionality of § 9(h).
1. The constitutionality of § 9(h) is legally irrelevant to the validity of petitioner's conviction under 18 U.S.C. § 1001, which punishes the making of fraudulent statements to the Government, Dennis, supra, because none of the elements of proof for petitioner's conviction under § 1001 has been shown to depend on the validity of § 9(h). Pp. 396 U. S. 68-72.
(a) The statutory term "affiliated," which petitioner claims is vague and overbroad and which he suggests he misunderstood, was narrowly defined by the trial court in an instruction later explicitly approved by this Court, and the jury's verdict reflects a determination that petitioner's false statement was knowingly and deliberately made. Pp. 396 U. S. 69-70.
(b) Petitioner's false statement was made in a "matter within the jurisdiction" of the NLRB, as the NLRB received the affidavit pursuant to explicit statutory authority, which, only a short time before, had been upheld as constitutional in Douds, supra. Pp. 396 U. S. 70-71.
2. Dennis, supra, negates any general principle that a citizen has a privilege to answer fraudulently a question that the Government should not have asked. P. 396 U. S. 72.
3. This case is not distinguishable from Dennis, supra, which is followed here. Pp. 396 U. S. 72-73.
On the Government's appeal, the Ninth Circuit reversed because it found "no significant differences" between this case and Dennis, and it therefore thought it unnecessary to consider the constitutionality of § 9(h). 403 F.2d 340 (1968). We granted certiorari, 393 U.S. 1079 (1969), and we now affirm.
to offend the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. We do not decide whether § 9(h) -- now repealed for over 10 years -- would today pass constitutional muster, and whether Douds would be reaffirmed. Guided by Dennis v. United States, supra, we hold that the question of whether § 9(h) was constitutional or not is legally irrelevant to the validity of petitioner's conviction under § 1001, the general criminal provision punishing the making of fraudulent statements to the Government.
"The governing principle is that a claim of unconstitutionality will not be heard to excuse a voluntary, deliberate and calculated course of fraud and deceit. One who elects such a course as a means of self-help may not escape the consequences by urging that his conduct be excused because the statute which he sought to evade is unconstitutional. This is a prosecution directed at petitioners' fraud. It is not an action to enforce the statute claimed to be unconstitutional."
384 U.S. at 384 U. S. 867.
or duress. Insofar as petitioner in this collateral proceeding attempts to suggest the contrary, [Footnote 8] he is simply trying to impeach the jury's verdict, upheld after careful review on direct appeal.
Notwithstanding the fact that the Government has proved the elements necessary for a conviction under § 1001, the petitioner would have us say that the invalidity of § 9(h) would provide a defense to his conviction. But, after Dennis, it cannot be thought that, as a general principle of our law, a citizen has a privilege to answer fraudulently a question that the Government should not have asked. Our legal system provides methods for challenging the Government's right to ask questions [Footnote 12] -- lying is not one of them. A citizen may decline to answer the question, or answer it honestly, but he cannot with impunity knowingly and willfully answer with a falsehood.
a purported compliance with [§ 9(h) was] designed to avoid the courts, not to invoke their jurisdiction."
384 U.S. at 384 U. S. 865.
Petitioner also attempts to distinguish Dennis on the ground that the behavior involved in the present case was less culpable than that found punishable in Dennis, and that this petitioner, unlike the petitioners in Dennis, did not "flout" the law, for he had "every right to believe" that he had not perjured himself. If, apart from attempting to impeach the jury's verdict, see n 8, supra, petitioner is suggesting that the principles of Dennis depend on an assessment of moral culpability beyond the jury's determination of guilt, he simply misconceives the basis of Dennis. Dennis can hardly be read as instructing courts to impose an extra punishment on a defendant found to have been dishonest by refusing to consider a constitutional argument that is legally relevant to his defense. Dennis refused to reconsider Douds because of the legal conclusion that the constitutionality of § 9(h) was not relevant to the validity of the conspiracy prosecution.
Petitioner finally contends that the Court should not follow Dennis, because "its strictures . . . have no relevance at all to post-conviction proceedings." Of course, federal courts have jurisdiction to consider constitutional claims on collateral review, but a substantive defense that is not legally relevant on direct review becomes no more relevant because asserted on collateral review.
"that he is not a member of the Communist Party or affiliated with such party, and that he does not believe in, and is not a member of or supports any organization that believes in or teaches, the overthrow of the United States Government by force or by any illegal or unconstitutional methods. The provisions of [§§ 286, 287, 1001, 1022, and 1023 of Title 18] shall be applicable in respect to such affidavits."
After his conviction, petitioner had been sentenced to five years' imprisonment and a $10,000 fine. He had served almost two years of his sentence before being paroled in December, 1959. Because only $2,000 of his fine had been paid, however, petitioner had not yet been discharged from his parole status when he commenced the present proceedings in 1967.
The jury acquitted petitioner of the separate charge that he had fraudulently denied that he was a "member" of the Communist Party.
Section 504, Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959, 73 Stat. 536, 29 U.S.C. § 504.
"I tried to think of some analogy which would make that possibly clearer to you, and the best one I can think of -- we have all in our experience probably heard of a man and woman who live together but are not married. They are husband and wife in everything but name only. You have probably heard that expression. A person, to be affiliated with the Communist Party within the meaning of that term as used in the Second Count of the indictment, must be a member in every sense and stand in the relationship of a member in every sense but that of the mere technicality of being a member, -- in everything but name."
Bryson v. United States, 238 F.2d at 664 n. 8.
Petitioner claims that he did not know that his relationship with the Communist Party amounted to affiliation, and that he signed the affidavit submitted to the Board after counsel had advised him that he was not at the time "affiliated." This is apparently the same claim he made in an affidavit prepared in connection with his motion to reduce his sentence. At his trial, however, petitioner did not take the stand, and his unproved allegations are not even found in the record upon which the jury found him guilty.
In concluding that the Board had no jurisdiction for purposes of § 1001, the District Court reasoned that, if § 9(h) were unconstitutional, the Board was not performing one of its "authorized functions," a phrase taken from United States v. Gilliland, 312 U.S. at 312 U. S. 93. By taking Gilliland's unelaborated reference to "authorized functions" out of context, the District Court gave that phrase a meaning both unsupported by the holding and inconsistent with the spirit of that decision. The holding of Gilliland that there need be no "pecuniary . . . loss to the government" in order to punish fraudulent behavior was based on the Court's concern that the statute be given a broad reading in order to protect the Government "from the perversion which might result from the deceptive practices described," ibid.
"had no power to adjudicate rights, establish binding regulations, compel the action, or finally dispose of the problem giving rise to the inquiry."
Id. at 365, 368. We have no occasion in the present context either to approve or disapprove Friedman's holding.
We have no need to decide in this case whether jurisdiction would exist under § 1001 if, at the time the request for information was made, a court had already authoritatively determined that the statutory basis was invalid. Cf. United States v. Kapp, supra.
For two examples of how the constitutional validity of § 9(h) could be raised, see American Communications Assn. v. Douds, 339 U.S. at 339 U. S. 385-387.
In support of the contention that Dennis was meant to apply only to conspiracy charges, and not simply to § 1001 violations, both the District Court and petitioner here quote the language in Dennis to the effect that: "It is the entire conspiracy, and not merely the filing of false affidavits, which is the gravamen of the charge." 384 U.S. at 384 U. S. 860. That language, however, was addressed to the threshold question that the Court faced in Dennis, namely, whether the facts alleged in the indictment were sufficient to warrant a conspiracy charge, which requires elements additional to those necessary for a violation of § 1001.
representations" in any matter "within the jurisdiction" of the National Labor Relations Board. Former § 9(h) of the Labor Management Relations Act, 1947, 29 U.S.C. § 159(h) (1958 ed.), barred a union from using the services of the Board unless and until each of the union's officers had filed his affidavit that he was neither a member of nor affiliated with the Communist Party. The basic question in this proceeding under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 is whether, constitutionally speaking, it was "within the jurisdiction" of the Board to require the filing of those affidavits.
Obviously the power of Congress to authorize prosecution for crimes of this character must rest on an interference with or obstruction of some "lawful" function of the agency in question. See United States v. Johnson, 383 U. S. 169, 383 U. S. 172. Apart from constitutional problems, the question of what is "within the jurisdiction" of an agency should be construed in a restrictive, not an expansive, way. The Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit so held in Friedman v. United States, 374 F.2d 363, when it ruled that telling a falsehood to the FBI in its role as "investigator" was not "within the jurisdiction" of that agency in the sense of § 1001. If it were, then telling lies to agencies would carry heavier penalties than committing perjury in court. 374 F.2d at 367.
The words "within the jurisdiction" must be read not only with the common sense approach of Friedman, but also in light of our constitutional regime. One of many mandates imposed on Congress by the Constitution is the prohibition against bills of attainder. Art. I, § 9.
"Attempts of the courts to fathom modern political meditations of an accused would be as futile and mischievous as the efforts in the infamous heresy trials of old to fathom religious beliefs."
Id. at 339 U. S. 437.
"[E]fforts to weed erroneous beliefs from the minds of men have always been supported by the argument which the Court invokes today, that beliefs are springs to action, that evil thoughts tend to become forbidden deeds. Probably so. But if power to forbid acts includes power to forbid contemplating them, then the power of government over beliefs is as unlimited as its power over conduct, and the way is open to force disclosure of attitudes on all manner of social, economic, moral and political issues."
Id. at 339 U. S. 438.
From this opinion, I conclude that Mr. Justice Jackson did not reach the bill of attainder point in Mr. Chief Justice Vinson's opinion. And MR. JUSTICE BLACK dissented. Id. at 339 U. S. 445.
So I conclude that no more than three members of the Court (Vinson, C.J., and Reed and Burton, JJ.) ever held that § 9(h) was constitutional against the challenge that it was a bill of attainder.
of a labor union. The Vinson opinion in Douds upheld § 9(h) on the basis that it was "intended to prevent future action, rather than to punish pas action." 339 U.S. at 339 U. S. 414. In Brown, it was likewise argued that the statute there involved was "preventive, rather than retributive, in purpose." 381 U.S. at 381 U. S. 457. That view was rejected. The question, we said, was whether § 504 inflicted "punishment," which, we pointed out, "serves several purposes: retributive, rehabilitative, deterrent -- and preventive." Id. at 381 U. S. 458. The dissenters -- Mr. Justice Clark, MR. JUSTICE HARLAN, MR. JUSTICE STEWART, and MR. JUSTICE WHITE -- concluded that Douds was "obviously overruled." Id. at 381 U. S. 464-465. Whatever may be said technically about any remaining vitality of the Douds case, it obviously belongs to a discredited regime, though, like Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U. S. 537, it has never been officially overruled.
The rule invoked by the Court to deny petitioner the opportunity to challenge that bill of attainder in this proceeding is, as stated by MR. JUSTICE BLACK in his separate opinion in Dennis v. United States, 384 U. S. 855, 384 U. S. 878, "a new court-made doctrine." As he pointed out in that opinion, the prior decisions of this Court relied on to deny the defense of unconstitutionality of a federal law were instances of false claims for benefits to which the complainant had "no possible right, whether the statute was constitutional or unconstitutional." Ibid.
In this case, however, Congress installed an unconstitutional barrier to receipt of the benefits administered by the Labor Board. Since § 9(h), in light of Brown, was plainly unconstitutional, petitioner's union was entitled to those services without the filing of any affidavit. Therefore, unlike prior cases, the United States had been deprived of nothing and defrauded of nothing by the filing of any affidavit or other form of claim.

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