Source: https://www.legalcrystal.com/case/98502/wong-yang-sung-vs-mcgrath
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 14:38:43+00:00

Document:
1. Administrative hearings in proceedings for the deportation of aliens must conform to the requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. §§ 1001 et seq. Pp. 339 U. S. 35 -53.
2. The history of this Act discloses that it is remedial legislation which should be construed, so far as its text permits, to give effect to its remedial purposes where the evils it was aimed at appear. Pp. 339 U. S. 36 -41.
3. One of the fundamental purposes of the Act was to ameliorate the evils resulting from the practice of commingling in one person the duties of prosecutor and judge. Pp. 339 U. S. 41 -45, 339 U. S. 46 .
4. A hearing in a proceeding for the deportation of an alien was presided over by a "presiding inspector" of the Immigration Service, who had not investigated that particular case but whose general duties included the investigation of similar cases. There being no "examining inspector" present to conduct the prosecution, it was the duty of the "presiding inspector" to conduct the interrogation of the alien and the Government's witnesses, cross-examine the alien's witnesses, and "present such evidence as is necessary to support the charges in the warrant of arrest." It might become his duty to lodge an additional charge against the alien and hear the evidence on that charge. After the hearing, he was required to prepare a summary of the evidence, proposed findings of fact, conclusions of law, and a proposed order, for the consideration of the Commissioner of Immigration.
Held: this was contrary to the purpose of the Administrative Procedure Act to ameliorate the evils resulting from a combination of the prosecuting and adjudicating functions in administrative proceedings. Pp. 339 U. S. 45 -48.
Service, although the Immigration Act contains no express requirement for hearings in deportation proceedings. Pp. 339 U. S. 48 -51 .
(a) The limitation of § 5 of the Administrative Procedure Act to hearings "required by statute" does not exempt hearings held by compulsion, but only those which administrative agencies may hold by regulation, rule, custom, or special dispensation. P. 339 U. S. 50 .
(b) They do not exempt hearings the requirement for which has been read into a statute by this Court in order to save the statute from constitutional invalidity. Pp. 339 U. S. 50 -51.
6. The exception in § 7(a) of the Administrative Procedure Act of proceedings before "officers specially provided for by or designated pursuant to statute" does not exempt deportation hearings held before immigrant inspectors. Pp. 339 U. S. 51 -53.
(a) Nothing in the Immigration Act specifically provides that immigrant inspectors shall conduct deportation hearings or be designated to do so. Pp. 339 U. S. 51 -52.
84 U.S.App.D.C. 419, 174 F.2d 158, reversed.
In a habeas corpus proceeding, the District Court held that the Administrative Procedure Act of June 11, 1946, 60 Stat. 237, 5 U.S.C. §§ 1001 et seq., does not apply to deportation hearings. 80 F.Supp. 235. The Court of Appeals affirmed. 84 U.S.App.D.C. 419, 174 F.2d 158. This Court granted certiorari. 338 U.S. 812. Reversed, p. 339 U. S. 53 .
This habeas corpus proceeding involves a single ultimate question -- whether administrative hearings in deportation cases must conform to requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act of June 11, 1946, 60 Stat. 237, 5 U.S.C. § 1001 et seq.
Wong Yang Sung, native and citizen of China, was arrested by immigration officials on a charge of being unlawfully in the United States through having overstayed shore leave as one of a shipping crew. A hearing was held before an immigrant inspector who recommended deportation. The Acting Commissioner approved, and the Board of Immigration Appeals affirmed.
The Government admitted noncompliance, but asserted that the Act did not apply. The court, after hearing, discharged the writ and remanded the prisoner to custody, holding the Administrative Procedure Act inapplicable to deportation hearings. 80 F.Supp. 235. The Court of Appeals affirmed. 84 U.S.App.D.C. 419, 174 F.2d 158. Prisoner's petition for certiorari was not opposed by the Government and, because the question presented has obvious importance in the administration of the immigration laws, we granted review. 338 U.S. 812.
The Administrative Procedure Act of June 11, 1946, supra, is a new, basic, and comprehensive regulation of procedures in many agencies, more than a few of which can advance arguments that its generalities should not or do not include them. Determination of questions of its coverage may well be approached through consideration of its purposes as disclosed by its background.
departments of the executive Government and to recommend improvements, including the suggestion of any needed legislation. [ Footnote 9 ]"
measures, [ Footnote 15 ] but, before the gathering storm of national emergency and war, consideration of the problem was put aside. Though bills on the subject reappeared in 1944, [ Footnote 16 ] they did not attract much attention.
The Act thus represents a long period of study and strife; it settles long continued and hard fought contentions, and enacts a formula upon which opposing social and political forces have come to rest. It contains many compromises and generalities and, no doubt, some ambiguities.
Experience may reveal defects. But it would be a disservice to our form of government and to the administrative process itself if the courts should fail, so far as the terms of the Act warrant, to give effect to its remedial purposes where the evils it was aimed at appear.
Of the several administrative evils sought to be cured or minimized, only two are particularly relevant to issues before us today. One purpose was to introduce greater uniformity of procedure and standardization of administrative practice among the diverse agencies whose customs had departed widely from each other. [ Footnote 21 ] We pursue this no further than to note that any exception we may find to its applicability would tend to defeat this purpose.
threaten the impartial performance of that judicial work. The discretionary work of the administrator is merged with that of the judge. Pressures and influences properly enough directed toward officers responsible for formulating and administering policy constitute an unwholesome atmosphere in which to adjudicate private rights. But the mixed duties of the commissions render escape from these subversive influences impossible."
"Furthermore, the same men are obliged to serve both as prosecutors and as judges. This not only undermines judicial fairness; it weakens public confidence in that fairness. Commission decisions affecting private rights and conduct lie under the suspicion of being rationalizations of the preliminary findings which the commission, in the role of prosecutor, presented to itself."
Administrative Management in the Government of the United States, Report of the President's Committee on Administrative Management, 36-37 (1937).
"would sit as an impartial, independent body to make decisions affecting the public interest and private rights upon the basis of the records and findings presented to it by the administrative section."
"The inspector who presides over the formal hearing is in many respects comparable to a trial judge. He has, at a minimum, the function of determining -- subject to objection on the alien's behalf -- what goes into the written record upon which decision ultimately is to be based. Under the existing practice, he has also the function of counsel representing the moving party -- he does not merely admit evidence against the alien; he has the responsibility of seeing that such evidence is put into the record. The precise scope of his appropriate functions is the first question to be considered."
"Merely to provide that, in particular cases, different inspectors shall investigate and hear is an insufficient guarantee of insulation and independence of the presiding official. The present organization of the field staff not only gives work of both kinds commonly to the same inspector, but tends toward an identity of viewpoint as between inspectors who are chiefly doing only one or the other kind of work. . . ."
". . . We recommend that the presiding inspectors be relieved of their present duties of presenting the case against aliens, and be confirmed [ sic ] entirely to the duties customary for a judge. This, of course, would require the assignment of another officer to perform the task of a prosecuting attorney. The appropriate officer for this purpose would seem to be the investigating inspector who, having prepared the case against the alien, is already thoroughly familiar with it. . . . "
"A genuinely impartial hearing, conducted with critical detachment, is psychologically improbable, if not impossible, when the presiding officer has at once the responsibility of appraising the strength of the case and of seeking to make it as strong as possible. Nor is complete divorce between investigation and hearing possible so long as the presiding inspector has the duty himself of assembling and presenting the results of the investigation. . . ."
"These types of commingling of functions of investigation or advocacy with the function of deciding are thus plainly undesirable. But they are also avoidable, and should be avoided by appropriate internal division of labor. For the disqualifications produced by investigation or advocacy are personal psychological ones which result from engaging in those types of activity, and the problem is simply one of isolating those who engage in the activity. Creation of independent hearing commissioners insulated from all phases of a case other than hearing and deciding will, the Committee believes, go far toward solving this problem at the level of the initial hearing provided the proper safeguards are established to assure the insulation. . . ."
Rep. Atty.Gen. Comm'n Ad.Proc. 56 (1941), S.Doc. No. 8, 77th Cong., 1st Sess. 56 (1941).
separation and supported it with a cogent report. Id. at 203 et seq.
Such were the evils found by disinterested and competent students. Such were the facts before Congress which gave impetus to the demand for the reform which this Act was intended to accomplish. It is the plain duty of the courts, regardless of their views of the wisdom or policy of the Act, to construe this remedial legislation to eliminate, so far as its text permits, the practices it condemns.
"conduct the interrogation of the alien and the witnesses in behalf of the Government, and shall cross-examine the alien's witnesses and present such evidence as is necessary to support the charges in the warrant of arrest."
8 C.F.R. 150.6(b). It may even become his duty to lodge an additional charge against the alien and proceed to hear his own accusation in like manner. 8 C.F.R. 150.6(1). Then, as soon as practicable, he is to prepare a summary of the evidence, proposed findings of fact, conclusions of law, and a proposed order. A copy is furnished the alien or his counsel, who may file exceptions and brief, 8 C.F.R. 150.7, whereupon the whole is forwarded to the Commissioner. 8 C.F.R. 150.9.
The Administrative Procedure Act did not go so far as to require a complete separation of investigating and prosecuting functions from adjudicating functions. But that the safeguards it did set up were intended to ameliorate the evils from the commingling of functions as exemplified here is beyond doubt. And this commingling, if objectionable anywhere, would seem to be particularly so in the deportation proceedings, where we frequently meet with a voteless class of litigants who not only lack the influence of citizens, but who are strangers to the laws and customs in which they find themselves involved, and who often do not even understand the tongue in which they are accused. Nothing in the nature of the parties or proceedings suggests that we should strain to exempt deportation proceedings from reforms in administrative procedure applicable generally to federal agencies.
for greater fairness is not too high. The agencies, unlike the aliens, have ready and persuasive access to the legislative ear, and, if error is made by including them, relief from Congress is a simple matter.
This brings us to contentions both parties have advanced based on the pendency in Congress of bills to exempt this agency from the Act. Following an adverse decision, [ Footnote 26 ] the Department asked Congress for exempting legislation, [ Footnote 27 ] which appropriate committees of both Houses reported favorably, but in different form and substance. [ Footnote 28 ] Congress adjourned without further action. The Government argues that Congress knows that the Immigration Service has construed the Act as not applying to deportation proceedings, and that it "has taken no action indicating disagreement with that interpretation;" that therefore it "is at least arguable that Congress was prepared to specifically confirm the administrative construction by clarifying legislation." We do not think we can draw that inference from uncompleted steps in the legislative process. Cf. Helvering v. Hallock, 309 U. S. 106 , 309 U. S. 119 -120.
Department's request for legislative clarification, from the congressional committees' willingness to consider it, or from Congress' failure to enact it.
We come, then, to examination of the text of the Act to determine whether the Government is right in its contentions, first, that the general scope of § 5 of the Act does not cover deportation proceedings, and second, that, even if it does, the proceedings are excluded from the requirements of the Act by virtue of § 7.
and the proceedings therefore are within the scope of § 5.
Both parties invoke many citations to legislative history as to the meaning given to these key words by the framers, advocates, or opponents of the Administrative Procedure Act. Because § 5 in the original bill applied to hearings required "by law," [ Footnote 31 ] because it was suggested by the Attorney General that it should be changed to "required by statute or Constitution," [ Footnote 32 ] and because it finally emerged "required by statute," the Government argues that the section is intended to apply only when explicit statutory words granting a right to adjudication can be pointed out. Petitioner, on the other hand, cites references which would indicate that the limitation to statutory hearing was merely to avoid creating by inference a new right to hearings where no right existed otherwise. We do not know. The legislative history is more conflicting than the text is ambiguous.
"This is the reasonable construction of the acts of Congress here in question, and they need not be otherwise interpreted. In the case of all acts of Congress, such interpretation ought to be adopted as, without doing violence to the import of the words used, will bring them into harmony with the Constitution."
The Japanese Immigrant Case, 189 U. S. 86 , 189 U. S. 101 .
We think that the limitation to hearings "required by statute" in § 5 of the Administrative Procedure Act exempts from that section's application only those hearings which administrative agencies may hold by regulation, rule, custom, or special dispensation; not those held by compulsion. We do not think the limiting words render the Administrative Procedure Act inapplicable to hearings, the requirement for which has been read into a statute by the Court in order to save the statute from invalidity. They exempt hearings of less than statutory authority, not those of more than statutory authority. We would hardly attribute to Congress a purpose to be less scrupulous about the fairness of a hearing necessitated by the Constitution than one granted by it as a matter of expediency.
the like of which has been condemned by Congress as unfair even where less vital matters of property rights are at stake.
"SEC. 7. In hearings which section 4 or 5 requires to be conducted pursuant to this section --"
"(a) PRESIDING OFFICERS. -- There shall preside at the taking of evidence (1) the agency, (2) one or more members of the body which comprises the agency, or (3) one or more examiners appointed as provided in this Act; but nothing in this Act shall be deemed to supersede the conduct of specified classes of proceedings in whole or part by or before boards or other officers specially provided for by or designated pursuant to statute. . . ."
60 Stat. 237, 241, 5 U.S.C. § 1006.
immigrant inspectors, except as hereinafter provided in regard to boards of special inquiry. . . . Said inspectors shall have power to administer oaths and to take and consider evidence touching the right of any alien to enter, reenter, pass through, or reside in the United States, and, where such action may be necessary, to make a written record of such evidence. . . ."
39 Stat. 874, 885, as amended, 8 U.S.C. § 152.
Certainly nothing here specifically provides that immigrant inspectors shall conduct deportation hearings or be designated to do so. This language does direct them to conduct border inspections of aliens seeking admission. They may administer oaths and take, record, and consider evidence. But these functions are indispensable to investigations which are concededly within their competence. And these functions are likewise necessary to enable the preparation of complaints for prosecutive purposes. But that Congress, by grant of these powers, has specially constituted them or provided for their designation as hearing officers in deportation proceedings does not appear.
Section 7(a) qualifies as presiding officers at hearings the agency and one or more of the members of the body comprising the agency, and it also leaves untouched any others whose responsibilities and duties as hearing officers are established by other statutory provision. But, if hearings are to be had before employees whose responsibility and authority derives from a lesser source, they must be examiners whose independence and tenure are so guarded by the Act as to give the assurances of neutrality which Congress thought would guarantee the impartiality of the administrative process.
enacted for general application to administrative agencies. We hold that deportation proceedings must conform to the requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act if resulting orders are to have validity. Since the proceeding in the case before us did not comply with these requirements, we sustain the writ of habeas corpus and direct release of the prisoner.
"The same officers who preside at the reception of evidence pursuant to section 7 shall make the recommended decision or initial decision required by section 8 except where such officers become unavailable to the agency. Save to the extent required for the disposition of ex parte matters as authorized by law, no such officer shall consult any person or party on any fact in issue unless upon notice and opportunity for all parties to participate; nor shall such officer be responsible to or subject to the supervision or direction of any officer, employee, or agent engaged in the performance of investigative or prosecuting functions for any agency. No officer, employee, or agent engaged in the performance of investigative or prosecuting functions for any agency in any case shall, in that or a factually related case, participate or advise in the decision, recommended decision, or agency review pursuant to section 8 except as witness or counsel in public proceedings. . . . ;"
"Subject to the civil service and other laws to the extent not inconsistent with this Act, there shall be appointed by and for each agency as many qualified and competent examiners as may be necessary for proceedings pursuant to sections 7 and 8, who shall be assigned to cases in rotation so far as practicable and shall perform no duties inconsistent with their duties and responsibilities as examiners. Examiners shall be removable by the agency in which they are employed only for good cause established and determined by the Civil Service Commission (hereinafter called the Commission) after opportunity for hearing and upon the record thereof. Examiners shall receive compensation prescribed by the Commission independently of agency recommendations or ratings and in accordance with the Classification Act of 1923, as amended, except that the provisions of paragraphs (2) and (3) of subsection (b) of section 7 of said Act, as amended, and the provisions of section 9 of said Act, as amended, shall not be applicable. . . ."
See e.g., Blachly and Oatman, Administrative Legislation and Adjudication 1 (1934); Landis, The Administrative Process 1 (1938); Pound, Administrative Law 27 (1942); Carrow, Background of Administrative Law 1 (1948); The Federal Administrative Procedure Act and the Administrative Agencies 4 (N.Y.U.1947); Final Report of Attorney General's Committee on Administrative Procedure 7 (1941), contained in S.Doc. No. 8, 77th Cong., 1st Sess. (1941); Cushman, The Independent Regulatory Commissions, cc. II-V (1941); Frankfurter, The Task of Administrative Law, 75 U. of Pa.L.Rev. 614 (1927); materials cited in n 4, infra.
See e.g., Dickinson, Administrative Justice and the Supremacy of Law, passim (1927); Final Report of Attorney General's Committee on Administrative Procedure, supra at 11-18, 75-92, and see materials cited in n 4, infra.
E.g., Benjamin, Administrative Adjudication in the New York (1942); Tenth Biennial Report of the Judicial Council to the Governor and Legislature of California (1944). See also Fesler, The Independence of State Regulatory Agencies (1942); Handbook of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, 226 et seq. (1943); 63 A.B.A.Rep. 623 (1938).
The quoted statement is from President Roosevelt's message to Congress of December 18, 1940, vetoing H.R. 6324, the so-called Walter-Logan bill. H.R.Doc. No. 986, 76th Cong., 3d Sess., 3-4 (1940). The origin and orders leading to the creation of the Attorney General's Committee are set out in Appendix A of the Committee's Final Report, supra.
86 Cong.Rec. 13942-3 (1940), reprinted in H.R.Doc. No. 986, 76th Cong., 3d Sess. (1940).
86 Cong.Rec. at 13943; H.R.Doc. No. 986, supra, 4.
These bills appear at pp. 192 and 217 of the Committee's Final Report, supra. The majority bill became S. 675, 77th Cong., 1st Sess. (1941), and the minority recommendation was embodied in S. 674, 77th Cong., 1st Sess. (1941).
See H.R.Rep. No.1980, 79th Cong., 2d Sess. 14-15 (1946); S.Rep. No. 752, 79th Cong., 1st Sess. 4-5 (1945), reprinted in S.Doc. No. 248, 79th Cong., 2d Sess. at 185, 190-191, and 233, 248-249, respectively.
S.Rep. No. 752, 79th Cong., 1st Sess. 37-45 (1945); 92 Cong.Rec. App. A-2982-5 (1946).
H.R.Rep. No.1980, 79th Cong., 2d Sess. 16 (1946); Final Report of the Attorney General's Committee on Administrative Procedure, 20 (1941); McFarland, Analysis of the Federal Administrative Procedure Act, in Federal Administrative Procedure Act and the Administrative Agencies 16, 22 (N.Y.U.1947). See also Hearings before Subcommittee No. 4 of the House Committee on the Judiciary on H.R. 4236, H.R. 6198, and H.R. 6324, 76th Cong., 1st Sess. 14, 31 (1939); S.Rep. No. 442, 76th Cong., 1st Sess. 9 (1939); H.R.Rep. No. 1149, 76th Cong., 1st Sess. 2-3 (1939); S.Doc. No. 71, 76th Cong., 1st Sess. 5 (1939).
The initial step in a deportation case is the investigation of an alien by an immigrant inspector. 8 C.F.R. 150.1. This is followed by issuance of a warrant of arrest, 8 C.F.R. 150.2-150.4, and incarceration, unless the alien is released under bond. 8 C.F.R. 150.5. The formal hearing follows.
Eisler v. Clark, 77 F.Supp. 610 (1948).
S.Rep. No. 1588, H.R.Rep. No. 2140, 80th Cong., 2d Sess. (1948).
". . . any alien who shall have entered or who shall be found in the United States in violation of this Act, or in violation of any other law of the United States . . . shall, upon the warrant of the Attorney General, be taken into custody and deported. . . . In every case where any person is ordered deported from the United States under the provisions of this Act, or of any law or treaty, the decision of the Attorney General shall be final."
The Japanese Immigrant Case, 189 U. S. 86 , 189 U. S. 100 -101; Kwock Jan Fat v. White, 253 U. S. 454 , 253 U. S. 459 , 253 U. S. 464 ; Bridges v. Wixon, 326 U. S. 135 , 326 U. S. 160 (concurring opinion).
Section 301 of the bills proposed in the majority and minority recommendations of the Final Report of the Attorney General's Committee on Administrative Procedure, pp. 195, 232-233.
The original Act, 39 Stat. 886, reads "under this Act," although, in the codification, 8 U.S.C. § 152, it reads "under this section." The former is controlling. 1 U.S.C. (Supp. II, 1949) §§ 112, 204(a).
In this case, no one questions the constitutionality of the hearing Wong received before the immigrant inspector, with administrative review by the Commissioner and the Board of Immigration Appeals. The question on which I disagree with the Court is whether the Administrative Procedure Act permits an inspector of the Immigration and Naturalization Service to serve as a presiding officer at a deportation hearing.
"but nothing in this Act shall be deemed to supersede the conduct of specified classes of proceedings in whole or part by or before boards or other officers specially provided for by or designated pursuant to statute."
It is this exception that made it proper for an immigrant inspector to preside at this deportation hearing.
"inspection . . . of aliens, including those seeking admission or readmission to or the privilege of passing through or residing in the United States, and the examination of aliens arrested within the United States under this Act, shall be conducted by immigrant inspectors. . . . Said inspectors shall have power to administer oaths and to take and consider evidence touching the right of any alien to enter, reenter, pass through, or reside in the United States, and, where such action may be necessary, to make a written record of such evidence. . . ."
It seems to me obvious that the exception provided in § 7(a) covers immigrant inspectors dealing with the arrest of an alien for violation of the Immigration Act. The examination of arrested aliens at a deportation proceeding is surely a specified class of proceedings under § 7(a) of the Administrative Procedure Act, and it is surely conducted by an officer "specially provided for by . . . statute."
"be a loophole for avoidance of the examiner system in any real sense, corrective legislation would be necessary. That provision is not intended to permit agencies to avoid the use of examiners, but to preserve special statutory types of hearing officers who contribute something more than examiners could contribute and, at the same time, assure the parties fair and impartial procedure."
S.Doc. No. 248, 79th Cong.2d Sess., p. 216.

References: § 5
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 § 152
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