Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/356/660/
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 22:48:00+00:00

Document:
Petitioner was brought to the United States from Poland in 1913 at the age of 10 years and was admitted to citizenship in 1938. In 1952, the Government sued under § 338(a) of the Nationality Act of 1940 to set aside the naturalization decree on the ground that it had been obtained fraudulently and illegally. The District Court granted the relief sought, and the Court of Appeals affirmed.
Held: the judgment is reversed, because the Government has failed to prove its charges by the "clear, unequivocal, and convincing evidence" which is required in denaturalization cases. Schneiderman v. United States, 320 U. S. 118. Pp. 356 U. S. 661-668.
1. An affidavit showing "good cause," filed with the complaint by a responsible official of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, who swore that the allegations were based upon facts disclosed by official records of the Service to which he had had access, satisfied the purpose of § 338(a) to protect those proceeded against from ill-considered action. P. 356 U. S. 662.
2. The finding of fraudulent procurement of citizenship, based on petitioner's answers to a question in a preliminary naturalization form filed in 1937, could not be sustained. The Government claimed that the question required petitioner to disclose that he was a member of the Communist Party; but the question was so ambiguous that it may have been understood by him as relating solely to membership in anarchistic organizations. Pp. 356 U. S. 663-665.
3. Though the Government proved that petitioner was a member of the Communist Party for five years preceding his naturalization, it failed to prove sufficiently that he was not "attached to the principles of the Constitution," because it did not prove by "clear, unequivocal, and convincing" evidence that he knew that the Party advocated the violent overthrow of the Government. Pp. 356 U. S. 665-668.
238 F.2d 282, reversed, and cause remanded.
naturalization he had not been "attached to the principles of the Constitution of the United States . . . ," as required by § 4 of the Nationality Act of 1906, [Footnote 2] under which he was naturalized. 133 F.Supp. 191. The Court of Appeals affirmed, 238 F.2d 282, and we granted certiorari. 353 U.S. 922. For reasons given hereafter, we decide that the judgment below must be reversed.
1. "Good Cause" Affidavit. -- Petitioner, relying on United States v. Zucca, 351 U. S. 91, contends that the District Court lacked jurisdiction over this proceeding because the Government's affidavit of "good cause" was defective in that it was not made by one having personal knowledge of the matters contained therein. This contention must be rejected. The affiant was an attorney of the Immigration and Naturalization Service who swore that the allegations made in his affidavit were based upon facts disclosed by official records of the Naturalization Service to which he had had access. In substance, the affidavit set forth the same matters upon which the District Court's later decree of denaturalization was based, and showed with adequate particularity the grounds on which the Government's suit rested. Sworn to as it was by a responsible official of the Naturalization Service, we consider that the affidavit satisfied the purpose of § 338(a) to protect those proceeded against from ill-considered action. See United States v. Zucca, supra, at 351 U. S. 99-100.
"28. Are you a believer in anarchy? . . . Do you belong to or are you associated with any organization which teaches or advocates anarchy or the overthrow of existing government in this country? . . ."
Nowak placed "No" after each part of the question. The courts below ruled that he should have answered "Yes" to the second part because, in 1937, when the form was executed, (1) Nowak was a member of the Communist Party; (2) the Party taught "the overthrow of existing government"; and (3) Nowak was aware of this Party teaching. Accordingly, the charge of fraudulent procurement was sustained.
Where citizenship is at stake, the Government carries the heavy burden of proving its case by "clear, unequivocal, and convincing' evidence which does not leave `the issue in doubt.' . . ." Schneiderman v. United States, 320 U. S. 118, 320 U. S. 158.
"Especially is this so when the attack is made long after the time when the certificate of citizenship was granted and the citizen has meanwhile met his obligations and has committed no act of lawlessness."
Id. at 320 U. S. 122-123. See also Baumgartner v. United States, 322 U. S. 665, 322 U. S. 675. And, in a case such as this, it becomes our duty to scrutinize the record with the utmost care. Cf. Dennis v. United States, 341 U. S. 494, 341 U. S. 516; Yates v. United States, 354 U. S. 298, 354 U. S. 328.
called for disclosure of membership in nonanarchistic organizations advocating violent overthrow of government and, more particularly, membership in the Communist Party; second, even if the question should have been taken as calling for disclosure of membership in such organizations, as the Government claims, the evidence, as we decide below in connection with the charge of illegal procurement, was insufficient to establish that Nowak knew that the Communist Party engaged in such illegal advocacy. We deal with the first of these grounds here.
No claim is made that Nowak's answer to the first part of Question 28 was untruthful. The issue is whether, as Nowak claims, the second part of the question could reasonably have been read by him as inquiring solely about membership in an anarchistic organization, or whether, as the Government contends, it unambiguously called for disclosure of membership in an organization which advocates either anarchy or overthrow of existing government.
accordingly, there was less reason for individuals to believe that government questionnaires were seeking information relating to Communist Party membership. [Footnote 3] The fact that the Nationality Act of 1906, under which this preliminary naturalization form was issued, prohibited anarchists, but not Communists, from becoming American citizens, see 34 Stat. 596, 597, 598, accentuates the highly doubtful meaning of the question. We hold the second part of Question 28 too ambiguous to sustain the fraudulent procurement charge based on petitioner's answer to it.
proved by this method, we nevertheless hold that the Government cannot prevail on this record. For we are of the opinion that it has not been established that Nowak knew of the Party's illegal advocacy.
The fact that Nowak was an active member and functionary in the Party does not, of itself, suffice to establish this vital link in the Government's chain of proof. See generally Schneiderman v. United States, supra; cf. Yates v. United States, supra, at 354 U. S. 329-330. Nor is the Government's burden satisfied on the crucial issue of Nowak's awareness of the illegal aspects of the Party's program by the evidence of his attendance at "closed" Party meetings, or by the disputed evidence as to his alleged concealment of Party membership. Virtually the only testimony at the trial bearing directly on Nowak's state of mind related to three statements attributed to him by former members of the Communist Party. One testified that, at the meeting at which Nowak joined the Party in 1935, he stated that it would be necessary to "destroy" capitalism in order to set up a workers' government. A second testified that, about 1937, Nowak stated at a Party meeting that the Party could not rely entirely on the ballot to gain its objectives, "but that it would eventually resolve to bullets." And a third testified that, in the summer of 1937, while lecturing at a Party school, Nowak said that, if the Party could not gain control of labor unions through elections, "then it may be necessary to use violence to get it," and that "the goal of all this activity was to extend the Soviet system around the face of the earth."
Under the strict standard of proof by which this case must be judged, the record shows, at best from the Government's standpoint, that Nowak was an active member and functionary of the Communist Party. But this proof does not suffice to make out the Government's case, for Congress, in the Nationality Act of 1940, did not make membership or holding office in the Communist Party a ground for loss of citizenship. We conclude that the Government has failed to prove its charges of fraud and lack of "attachment" against this petitioner by the "clear, unequivocal, and convincing" evidence which is required in denaturalization cases. We therefore need not consider any of the other contentions pressed by petitioner.
"he has behaved as a person of good moral character, attached to the principles of the Constitution of the United States and well disposed to the good order and happiness of the United States."
"who are anarchists; aliens who believe in or advocate the overthrow by force or violence of the Government of the United States or of all forms of law."
Act of October 16, 1918, 40 Stat. 1012. The gap in the Government's proof cannot be filled in such tenuous fashion, especially in view of the citizenship provisions of the Nationality Act of 1906 referred to in the text.
"He gave an outline of what Party members should do in the plant, and that we would have to be a little more aggressive if we expected to get anywhere at that time. . . . And he said we couldn't depend entirely on ballots in this country; it was only by a militant Communist leadership in the shops, stores and factories and mines that we could expect to have a Soviet America."
"[Nowak] said the Party policy was that members of the Party in the various unions should take an aggressive and militant leadership of the union."
"The only thing I can recall him saying one night at a meeting, that was slightly different, I guess, and yet the same question of militancy and all that, and there was political action, the question was brought up at the meeting and he told us at that time that we couldn't depend too much on the ballot to gain our objectives, but that it would eventually resolve to bullets, and it was only by the same militancy of the workers in the plants that we, as leaders, would be able to establish a Soviet America."

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