Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/364/372/
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 18:20:30+00:00

Document:
Petitioner was convicted under 2 U.S.C. § 192 for willful failure to comply with a subpoena of the House of Representatives commanding him to produce before one of its Subcommittees certain records of the Civil Rights Congress. The evidence showed: before issuance of the subpoena, the Subcommittee had reason to believe that the Civil Rights Congress was a subversive organization, and that petitioner was its Executive Secretary. At the hearing, the Chairman of the Subcommittee explained that Detroit is a vital defense area and that the purpose of the hearing was to investigate Communist activities there. When asked whether he would produce the documents called for by the subpoena, petitioner stated flatly that he would not. Neither at the hearing nor at his trial did petitioner deny the existence of the records or his ability to produce them. He based his refusal upon a claim of his privilege under the Fifth Amendment.
Held: the conviction is sustained. Pp. 364 U. S. 373-383.
(a) The Government's proof at the trial established a prima facie case of willful refusal to comply with the subpoena, and, inasmuch as petitioner neither advised the Subcommittee that he was unable to produce the records nor attempted to introduce at his trial any evidence of his inability to produce them, the trial court was justified in concluding and in charging the jury that the records called for by the subpoena were in existence and under petitioner's control at the time the subpoena was served upon him. Pp. 364 U. S. 373-380.
(b) The Fifth Amendment did not excuse petitioner from producing the records, since records held in a representative, rather than in a personal, capacity cannot be the subject of the personal privilege against self-incrimination. P. 364 U. S. 380.
(c) The evidence was sufficient to show that the records called for by the subpoena were pertinent to the inquiry. Pp. 364 U. S. 380-382.
(d) The subpoena was not so broad as to constitute an unreasonable search and seizure in violation of the Fourth Amendment. Pp. 364 U. S. 382-383.
272 F. 2d 627, affirmed.
We here review petitioner's conviction under 2 U.S.C. § 192 [Footnote 1] for willful failure to comply with a subpoena of the House of Representatives commanding him to produce certain records of the Civil Rights Congress before a Subcommittee of the House Committee on Un-American Activities. The principal question presented is whether the evidence justified the trial court's rulings that the records called for by the subpoena were in existence, subject to petitioner's control, and pertinent to the Committee's inquiry.
"all records, correspondence and memoranda pertaining to the organization of, the affiliation with other organizations and all monies received or expended by the Civil Rights Congress . . . [and] then and there to testify touching matters of inquiry committed to said Committee. . . ."
"The purpose of this investigation is to determine first, whether there has been Communist activity in this vital defense area, and if so, the nature, extent, character and objects thereof."
duces tecum, to produce certain records and documents. Are you prepared to respond to that subpoena?"
"Mr. WOOD: . . . Will you answer my question, Mr. McPhaul. Are you prepared to produce the documents and papers that have been called upon for you to produce under the subpoena?"
"Mr. McPHAUL: Mr. Wood, I refuse to answer this or any question which deals with the possession or custody of the books and records called for in the subpoena . I claim my privilege under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution."
"Mr. TAVENNER [Committee counsel]: I would like to ask the witness if he has any other reason for refusing to produce the documents called for in the subpoena?"
"Mr. WOOD: In order to complete the record, Mr. McPhaul is it in response to this subpoena that has just been read that you now decline, for the reason you have stated, to produce the documents and books and records therein called for?"
"Mr. McPHAUL: I have stated the reasons, for the record."
"Mr. WOOD: Is it in responses to this subpoena that you refuse to answer?"
"Mr. McPHAUL: That is my answer that I have just given."
"Mr. WOOD: To this subpoena?"
"Mr. McPHAUL: To that subpoena; yes. "
"Mr. TAVENNER: The question is as to whether or not you are refusing to produce the records directed to be produced under the subpoena?"
"Mr. McPHAUL: My answer to that is, I refuse to answer this or any questions which deal with possession or custody of the books and records called for in this subpoena. I claim my privilege under the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution."
"Mr. TAVENNER: My question to you was not answered by that statement, in my judgment. My question was whether or not you are refusing to produce the records which you were directed to produce under this subpoena?"
"Mr. McPHAUL: I have answered it in this statement."
"Mr. TAVENNER: No sir. You have stated that you refuse to answer any questions pertaining to them. I have not asked you a question that pertains to them. I have asked you to produce the records. Now, will you produce them?"
"Mr. McPHAUL: I will not."
"whether the records and documents designated in the subpoena were actually in existence or under the possession or control of the defendant, because if the defendant had legitimate reasons for failing to produce the said records, he should have stated his reasons for noncompliance with the subpoena when he appeared before the said subcommittee."
The jury found petitioner guilty, and he was fined the sum of $500 and sentenced to imprisonment for a period of nine months. The Court of Appeals affirmed, 272 F.2d 627, and we granted certiorari, 362 U.S. 917.
"[a] court will not imprison a witness for failure to produce documents which he does not have unless he is responsible for their unavailability, cf. 294 U. S. MacCracken [294 U.S. 125], or is impeding justice by not explaining what happened to them, United States v. Goldstein, 105 F.2d 150 (1939)."
notwithstanding he has never claimed he could not produce them.
"if [petitioner] had legitimate reasons for failing to produce the records of the association, a decent respect for the House of Representatives, by whose authority the subpoenas issued, would have required that [he] state [his] reasons for noncompliance upon the return of the writ."
Id. at 339 U. S. 332. Such a statement would have given the Subcommittee an opportunity to avoid the blocking of its inquiry by taking other appropriate steps to obtain the records.
"To deny the Committee the opportunity to consider the objection or remedy it is in itself a contempt of its authority and an obstruction of its processes. See Bevan v. Krieger, 289 U. S. 459, 289 U. S. 464-465 (1933). "
His failure to make any such statement was "a patent evasion of the duty of one summoned to produce papers before a congressional committee[, and] cannot be condoned." Id. at 339 U. S. 333.
The Government's proof at the trial thus established a prima facie case of willful failure to comply with the subpoena. The evidence of the Subcommittee's reasonable basis for believing that the petitioner could produce the records in question, coupled with the evidence of his failure even to suggest to the Subcommittee his ability to produce those records, clearly supported an inference that he could have produced them. The burden then shifted to the petitioner to present some evidence to explain or justify his refusal. Morrison v. California, 291 U. S. 82, 291 U. S. 88-89. But he elected not to present any evidence. In these circumstances, there was no factual issue, respecting the existence of the records or his ability to produce them, for resolution by the jury.
"[b]ooks and records kept 'in a representative rather than in a personal capacity cannot be the subject of the personal privilege against self-incrimination, even though production of the papers might tend to incriminate (their keeper) personally.' United States v. White, 322 U. S. 694, 322 U. S. 699 (1944)."
Rogers v. United States, 340 U. S. 367, 340 U. S. 372. And see Curcio v. United States, 354 U. S. 118, 354 U. S. 122-123. Similarly, there is no merit in petitioner's argument that he could not have advised the Subcommittee that he was unable to produce the records without thereby inviting other questions respecting the records, and thus risking waiver of his privilege against self-incrimination. See Curcio v. United States, 354 U. S. 118. Nor does the rule of Blau v. United States, 340 U. S. 159, excuse one subpoenaed to produce records in a representative capacity, United States v. White, 322 U. S. 694, from asserting inability to produce the records if at a later contempt trial for failure to produce the records he expects to put the Government to proof on that matter.
"whether there has been Communist activity in this vital defense area [Detroit], and, if so, the nature, extent character and objects thereof."
inquiry," Oklahoma Press Publishing Co. v. Walling, 327 U. S. 186, 327 U. S. 209.
Finally, petitioner contends that the subpoena was so broad as to constitute an unreasonable search and seizure in violation of the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution. "[A]dequacy or excess in the breadth of the subpoena are matters variable in relation to the nature, purposes and scope of the inquiry," Oklahoma Press Publishing Co. v. Walling, supra, at 327 U. S. 209. The Subcommittee's inquiry here was a relatively broad one -- whether "there has been Communist activity in this vital defense area [Detroit], and, if so, the nature, extent, character and objects thereof" -- and the permissible scope of materials that could reasonably be sought was necessarily equally broad.
It is not reasonable to suppose that the Subcommittee knew precisely what books and records were kept by the Civil Rights Congress, and therefore the subpoena could only "specif[y] . . . with reasonable particularity the subjects to which the documents . . . relate." Brown v. United States, 276 U. S. 134, 276 U. S. 143. The call of the subpoena for "all records, correspondence and memoranda" of the Civil Rights Congress relating to the three specified subjects describes them "with all of the particularity the nature of the inquiry and the [Subcommittee's] situation would permit," Oklahoma Press Publishing Co. v. Walling, supra, at 327 U. S. 210, n. 48.
"[T]he description contained in the subpoena was sufficient to enable [petitioner] to know what particular documents were required, and to select them accordingly,"
not more sweeping than those sustained against challenges of undue breadth in Endicott Johnson Corp. v. Perkins, 317 U. S. 501, and Oklahoma Press Publishing Co. v. Walling, 327 U. S. 186.
Under these circumstances, we cannot say that the breadth of the subpoena was such as to violate the Fourth Amendment.
Petitioner's motion to dismiss challenged the indictment on the grounds, among others, (1) that it failed to state "the relationship, if any, between the defendant and the Civil Rights Congress whose records defendant was required to produce," or that they "were subject to the control or in the custody of the defendant"; (2) that it failed to state facts showing "the inquiry [to be] within the purview of the" Subcommittee, "and the relevancy and materiality to [the] inquiry of the records called for in the subpoena"; and (3) that the scope of the subpoena violated "defendant's rights under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution."
The letter -- taken from the Subcommittee's files -- was on the letterhead of the Civil Rights Congress, dated February 16, 1952 -- just 10 days prior to the Detroit hearing -- over petitioner's name, and what purported to be his signature, as Executive Secretary. Despite the identity of names and the rule that "identity of names is prima facie evidence of identity of persons," Stebbins v. Duncan, 108 U. S. 32, 108 U. S. 47, the trial court, upon petitioner's objection, excluded the exhibit from consideration by the jury, but received it for his own consideration in respect to the questions of law presented.
See also the companion case of United States v. Fleischman, 339 U. S. 349, which is equally relevant to these questions.
"If you find from the evidence in this case, and beyond a reasonable doubt, that the defendant appeared before the said subcommittee, and then refused or failed to make any explanation with respect to the existence of the records designated in the subpoena, or with respect to whether or not such records were under his possession or control, I charge you that you may not consider the questions of whether the records and documents designated in the subpoena were actually in existence or under the possession or control of the defendant, because, if the defendant had legitimate reasons for failing to produce the said records, he should have stated his reasons for noncompliance with the subpoena when he appeared before the said subcommittee."
"I also charge you that the defendant is not excused from compliance with or producing the records designated in the subpoena merely because he is not designated as an officer or agent of the Civil Rights Congress therein, and neither is the defendant excused from such compliance with the said subpoena merely because of any lack of proof of any connection between the defendant and the Civil Rights Congress."
This theory, now sustained by the Court, permits conviction without any evidence of any "willful" default.
"For a transfer of the burden, experience must teach that the evidence held to be inculpatory has at least a sinister significance . . . or if this at times be lacking, there must be in any event a manifest disparity in convenience of proof and opportunity for knowledge. . . ."
said Mr. Justice Cardozo, "The joinder was something to be proved, for it was of the essence of the crime." Id., 291 U. S. 93. That ruling rests on the presumption of innocence that is never overcome unless the prosecution introduces some competent evidence implicating the accused in the criminal act that is charged. [Footnote 2/2] Here, the crime is "willful" default in the production of records of "the Civil Rights Congress." There can be no "willful" default unless this petitioner is shown to have (1) some connection with that organization and (2) some custody or control of its records. Simple questions by the Committee might have produced the necessary answers. It is hornbook law that they should have been asked. [Footnote 2/3] Yet they were not, and, without the foundation which they might have laid, the present prosecution has no starting point unless we are to throw procedural requirements to the winds.
and Practice (1899), p. 52. Once it was the rule that a man who refused to take an oath and answer in criminal proceedings was held in contempt. Trial of Lilburn, 3 How.St.Tr. 1315. See Maguire, Attack of the Common Lawyers on the Oath Ex officio as Administered in the Ecclesiastical Courts in England, Essays in History and Political Theory (1936), c. VII, p. 215.
The respondent claims that the Committee, if not the court, had a "reasonable basis for believing that petitioner could produce the records." That basis turns out to be a letter in the Committee files which the respondent made no attempt to link up with petitioner and which, for that reason, was never admitted into evidence.
Counsel for the Committee repeatedly asked petitioner to comply with the subpoena, but only once did he venture near the question of petitioner's power to comply. In the context of petitioner's invocation of his privilege against self-incrimination, Mr. Tavenner asked "if [petitioner] has any other reason for refusing to produce the documents called for." Again, the assumption is that the mere issue of the subpoena, without more, casts on the witness the burden of explaining noncompliance.

References: § 192
 § 192
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