Source: https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/339/763
Timestamp: 2015-10-07 09:04:15
Document Index: 114181396

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 2243', '§ 903', '§ 4', '§ 454', '§ 454', '§ 21', '§ 39', '§ 241', '§ 903', '§ 21', '§ 2243']

JOHNSON, Secretary of Defense, et al., v. EISENTRAGER et al. | US Law | LII / Legal Information Institute
Supreme Court aboutsearch liibulletin subscribe previews JOHNSON, Secretary of Defense, et al., v. EISENTRAGER et al.
339 U.S. 763 (70 S.Ct. 936, 94 L.Ed. 1255)
Argued: April 17, 1950.
[HTML] dissent, BLACK, DOUGLAS, BURTON
[HTML] Syllabus from pages 763-765 intentionally omitted
The obvious importance of these holdings to both judicial administration and military operations impelled us to grant certiorari. 338 U.S. 877, 70 S.Ct. 158. The case is before us only on issues of law. The writ of habeas corpus must be granted 'unless it appears from the application' that the applicants are not entitled to it. 28 U.S.C. 2243, 28 U.S.C.A. § 2243.
We are cited to no instance where a court, in this or any other country where the writ is known, has issued it on behalf of an alien enemy who, at no relevant time and in no stage of his captivity, has been within its territorial jurisdiction. Nothing in the text of the Constitution extends such a right, nor does anything in our statutes. Absence of support from legislative or juridical sources is implicit in the statement of the court below that 'The answers stem directly from fundamentals. They cannot be found by casual reference to statutes or cases.' The breadth of the court's premises and solution requires us to consider questions basic to alien enemy and kindred litigation which for some years have been beating upon our doors.
Modern American law has come a long way since the time when outbreak of war made every enemy national an outlaw, subject to both public and private slaughter, cruelty and plunder. But even by the most magnanimous view, our law does not abolish inherent distinctions recognized throughout the civilized world between citizens and aliens, nor between aliens of friendly and of enemy allegiance,
nor between resident enemy aliens who have submitted themselves to our laws and nonresident enemy aliens who at all times have remained with, and adhered to, enemy governments.
With the citizen we are now little concerned, except to set his case apart as untouched by this decision and to take measure of the difference between his status and that of all categories of aliens. Citizenship as a head of jurisdiction and a ground of protection was old when Paul invoked it in his appeal to Caesar. The years have not destroyed nor diminished the importance of citizenship nor have they sapped the vitality of a citizen's claims upon his government for protection. If a person's claim to United States citizenship is denied by any official, Congress has directed our courts to entertain his action to declare him to be a citizen 'regardless of whether he is within the United States or abroad.' 54 Stat. 1171, 8 U.S.C. 903, 8 U.S.C.A. § 903. This Court long ago extended habeas corpus to one seeking admission to the country to assure fair hearing of his claims to citizenship, Chin Yow v. United States, 208 U.S. 8, 28 S.Ct. 201, 52 L.Ed. 369, and has secured citizenship against forfeiture by involuntary formal acts, Perkins v. Elg, 307 U.S. 325, 59 S.Ct. 884, 83 L.Ed. 1320.
It is neither sentimentality nor chauvinism to repeat that 'Citizenship is a high privilege.' United States v. Manzi, 276 U.S. 463, 467, 48 S.Ct. 328, 329, 72 L.Ed. 654.
American doctrine as to effect of war upon the status of nationals of belligerents took permanent shape following our first foreign war. Chancellor Kent, after considering the leading authorities of his time, declared the law to be that '* * * in war, the subjects of each country were enemies to each other, and bound to regard and treat each other as such.' Griswold v. Waddington, 16 Johns., N.Y., 438, 480. If this was ever something of a fiction, it is one validated by the actualities of modern total warfare. Conscription, compulsory service and measures to mobilize every human and material resource and to utilize nationalswherever they may bein arms, intrigue and sabotage, attest the prophetic realism of what once may have seemed a doctrinaire and artificial principle. With confirmation of recent history, we may reiterate this Court's earlier teaching that in war 'every individual of the one nation must acknowledge every individual of the other nation as his own enemybecause the enemy of his country.' The Rapid, 8 Cranch 155, 161, 3 L.Ed. 520. See also White v. Burnley, 20 How. 235, 249, 15 L.Ed. 886. Lamar v. Browne, 92 U.S. 187, 194, 23 L.Ed. 650. And this without regard to his individual sentiments or disposition. The Benito Estenger, 176 U.S. 568, 571, 20 S.Ct. 489, 490, 44 L.Ed. 592. The alien enemy is bound by an allegiance which commits him to lose no opportunity to forward the cause of our enemy; hence the United States, assuming him to be faithful to his allegiance, regards him as part of the enemy resources. It therefore takes measures to disable him from commission of hostile acts imputed as his intention because they are a duty to his sovereign.
The United States does not invoke this enemy allegiance only for its own interest, but respects it also when to the enemy's advantage. In World War I our conscription act did not subject the alien enemy to compulsory military service. 40 Stat. 885, c. XII, § 4. The Selective Service Act of 1948, 62 Stat. 604, 50 U.S.C.Appendix, § 454(a), 50 U.S.C.A.Appendix, § 454(a), exempts aliens who have not formally declared their intention to become citizens from military training, service and registration, if they make application, but if so relieved, they are barred from becoming citizens. Thus the alien enemy status carries important immunities as well as disadvantages. The United States does not ask him to violate his allegiance or to commit treason toward his own country for the sake of ours. This also is the doctrine and the practice of other states comprising our Western Civilization.
The essential pattern for seasonable Executive constraint of enemy aliens, not on the basis of individual prepossessions for their native land but on the basis of political and legal relations to the enemy government, was laid down in the very earliest days of the Republic and has endured to this day. It was established by the Alien Enemy Act of 1798. 1 Stat. 577, as amended, 50 U.S.C. 21, 50 U.S.C.A. § 21. And it is to be noted that, while the Alien and Sedition Acts of that year provoked a reaction which helped sweep the party of Mr. Jefferson into power in 1800, and though his party proceeded to undo what was regarded as the mischievous legislation of the Federalists, this enactment was never repealed.
Executive power over enemy aliens, undelayed and unhampered by litigation, has been deemed, throughout our history, essential to war-time security. This is in keeping with the practices of the most enlightened of nations and has resulted in treatment of alien enemies more considerate than that which has prevailed among any of our enemies and some of our allies. This statute was enacted or suffered to continue by men who helped found the Republic and formulate the Bill of Rights, and although it obviously denies enemy aliens the constitutional immunities of citizens, it seems not then to have been supposed that a nation's obligations to its foes could ever be put on a parity with those to its defenders.
The resident enemy alien is constitutionally subject to summary arrest, internment and deportation whenever a 'declared war' exists. Courts will entertain his plea for freedom from Executive custody only to ascertain the existence of a state of war and whether he is an alien enemy and so subject to the Alien Enemy Act. Once these jurisdictional elements have been determined, courts will not inquire into any other issue as to his internment. Ludecke v. Watkins, 335 U.S. 160, 68 S.Ct. 1429, 92 L.Ed. 1881.
But the nonresident enemy alien, especially one who has remained in the service of the enemy, does not have been this qualified access to our courts, for he neither has comparable claims upon our institutions nor could his use of them fail to be helpful to the enemy. Our law on this subject first emerged about 1813 when the Supreme Court of the State of New York had occassion, in a series of cases, to examine the foremost authorities of the Continent and of England. It concluded the rule of the common law and the law of nations to be that alien enemies resident in the country of the enemy could not maintain an action in its courts during the period of hostilities. Bell v. Chapman, 10 Johns., N.Y., 183; Jackson ex dem. Johnston v. Decker, 11 Johns., N.Y., 418; Clarke v. Morey, 10 Johns., N.Y., 69, 70, 74 75. This Court has recognized that rule, Caperton v. Bowyer, 14 Wall. 216, 236, 20 L.Ed. 882; Masterson v. Howard, 18 Wall. 99, 105, 21 L.Ed. 764, and followed it, Ex parte Colonna, 314 U.S. 510, 62 S.Ct. 373, 86 L.Ed. 379, and it continues to be the law throughout this country and in England.
indeed, it is inherent in the very term 'habeas corpus.'
And though production of the prisoner may be dispensed with where it appears on the face of the application that no cause for granting the writ exists, Walker v. Johnston, 312 U.S. 275, 284, 61 S.Ct. 574, 578, 85 L.Ed. 830, we have consistently adhered to and recognized the general rule. Ahrens v. Clark, 335 U.S. 188, 190191, 68 S.Ct. 1443, 1441, 92 L.Ed. 1898. To grant the writ to these prisoners might mean that our army must transport them across the seas for hearing. This would require allocation of shipping space, guarding personnel, billeting and rations. It might also require transportation for whatever witnesses the prisoners desired to call as well as transportation for those necessary to defend legality of the sentence. The writ, since it is held to be a matter of right, would be equally available to enemies during active hostilities as in the present twilight between war and peace. Such trials would hamper the war effort and bring aid and comfort to the enemy. They would diminish the prestige of our commanders, not only with enemies but with wavering neutrals. It would be difficult to devise more effective fettering of a field commander than to allow the very enemies he is ordered to reduce to submission to call him to account in his own civil courts and divert his efforts and attention from the military offensive abroad to the legal defensive at home. Nor is it unlikely that the result of such enemy litigiousness would be a conflict between judicial and military opinion highly comforting to enemies of the United States.
The prisoners rely, however, upon two decisions of this Court to get them over the thresholdEx parte Quirin, 317 U.S. 1, 63 S.Ct. 2, 87 L.Ed. 3, and In re Yamashita, 327 U.S. 1, 66 S.Ct. 340, 90 L.Ed. 499. Reliance on the Quirin case is clearly mistaken. Those prisoners were in custody in the District of Columbia. One was, or claimed to be, a citizen. They were tried by a Military Commission sitting in the District of Columbia at a time when civil courts were open and functioning normally. They were arrested by civil authorities and the prosecution was personally directed by the Attorney General, a civilian prosecutor, for acts committed in the United States. They waived arraignment before a civil court and it was contended that the civil courts thereby acquired jurisdiction and could not be ousted by the Military. None of the places where they were acting, arrested, tried or imprisoned were, it was contended, in a zone of active military operations, were not under martial law or any other military control, and no circumstances justified transferring them from civil to military jurisdiction. None of these grave grounds for challenging military jurisdiction can be urged in the case now before us.
Nor can the Court's decision in the Yamashita case aid the prisoners. This Court refused to receive Yamashita's petition for a writ of habeas corpus. For hearing and opinion, it was consolidated with another application for a writ of certiorari to review the refusal of habeas corpus by the Supreme Court of the Philippines over whose decisions the statute then gave this Court a right of review. 28 U.S.C. 349 (1940), repealed by Act of June 25, 1948, c. 646, § 39, 62 Stat. 992, 1000. By reason of our sovereignty at that time over these insular possessions, Yamashita stood much as did Quirin before American courts. Yamashita's offenses were committed on our territory, he was tried within the jurisdiction of our insular courts and he was imprisoned within territory of the United States. None of these heads of jurisdiction can be invoked by these prisoners.
The Court of Appeals dispensed with all requirement of territorial jurisdiction based on place of residence, captivity, trial, offense, or confinement. It could not predicate relief upon any intraterritorial contact of these prisoners with our laws or institutions. Instead, it gave our Constitution an extraterritorial application to embrace our enemies in arms. Right to the writ, it reasoned, is a subsidiary procedural right that follows from possession of substantive constitutional rights. These prisoners, it considered, are invested with a right of personal liberty by our Constitution and therefore must have the right to the remedial writ. The court stated the steps in its own reasoning as follows: 'First. The Fifth Amendment, by its terms, applies to 'any person'. Second. Action of Government officials in violation of the Constitution is void. This is the ultimate essence of the present controversy. Third. A basic and inherent function of the judicial branch of a government built upon a constitution is to set aside void action by government officials, and so to restrict executive action to the confines of the constitution. In our jurisprudence, no Government action which is void under the Constitution is exempt from judicial power. Fourth. The writ of habeas corpus is the established, time-honored process in our law for testing the authority of one who deprives another of his liberty,'the best and only sufficient defense of personal freedom.' * * *' 84 U.S.App.D.C. 396, 398399, 174 F.2d 961, 963 964.
If this Amendment invests enemy aliens in unlawful hostile action against us with immunity from military trial, it puts them in a more protected position than our own soldiers. American citizens conscripted into the military service are thereby stripped of their Fifth Amendment rights and as members of the military establishment are subject to its discipline, including military trials for offenses against aliens or Americans. Cf. Humphrey v. Smith, 336 U.S. 695, 69 S.Ct. 830, 93 L.Ed. 986; Wade v. Hunter, 336 U.S. 684, 69 S.Ct. 834, 93 L.Ed. 974. Can there be any doubt that our foes would also have been excepted, but for the assumption 'any person' would never be read to include those in arms against us? It would be a paradox indeed if what the Amendment denied to Americans it guaranteed to enemies. And, of course, it cannot be claimed that such shelter is due them as a matter of comity for any reciprocal rights conferred by enemy governments on American soldiers.
The jurisdiction of military authorities, during or following hostilities, to punish those guilty of offenses against the laws of war is long-established. By the Treaty of Versailles, 'The German Government recognizes the right of the Allied and Associated Powers to bring before military tribunals persons accused of having committed acts in violation of the laws and customs of war.' Article 228. This Court has characterized as 'well-established' the 'power of the military to exercise jurisdiction over members of the armed forces, those directly connected with such forces, or enemy belligerents, prisoners of war, or others charged with violating the laws of war.' Duncan v. Kahanamoku, 327 U.S. 304, 312, 313-314, 66 S.Ct. 606, 610, 90 L.Ed. 688. And we have held in the Quirin and Yamashita cases, supra, that the Military Commission is a lawful tribunal to adjudge enemy offenses against the laws of war.
That there is a basis in conventional and long-established law by which conduct ascribed to them might amount to a violation seems beyond question. Breach of the terms of an act of surrender is no novelty among war crimes. 'That capitulations must be scrupulously adhered to is an old customary rule, since enacted by Article 35 of the Hague Regulations.
Any act contrary to a capitulation would constitute an international delinquency if ordered by a belligerent Government, and a war crime if committed without such order. Such violation may be met by reprisals or punishment of the offenders as war criminals.' II Oppenheim, International Law 433 (6th ed. rev., Lauterpacht, 1944). Vattel tells us: 'If any of the subjects, whether military men or private citizens offend against the truce * * * the delinquents should be compelled to make ample compensation for the damage, and severely punished. * * *' Law of Nations, Book III, c. XVI, § 241. And so too, Lawrence, who says, 'If * * * the breach of the conditions agreed upon is the act of unauthorized individuals, the side that suffers * * * may demand the punishment of the guilty parties and an indemnity for any losses it has sustained.' Principles of International Law (5th ed.) p. 566. It being within the jurisdiction of a Military Commission to try the prisoners, it was for it to determine whether the laws of war applied and whether an offense against them had been committed.
Certainly it is not the function of the Judiciary to entertain private litigationeven by a citizenwhich challenges the legality, the wisdom, or the propriety of the Commander-in-Chief in sending our armed forces abroad or to any particular region. China appears to have fully consented to the trial within her territories and, if China had complaint at the presence of American forces there, China's grievance does not become these prisoners' right. The issue tendered by '(b)' involves a challenge to conduct of diplomatic and foreign affairs, for which the President is exclusively responsible. United States v. Curtiss-Wright Export Corp., 299 U.S. 304, 57 S.Ct. 216, 81 L.Ed. 255; Chicago & Southern Air Lines v. Waterman Steamship Corp., 333 U.S. 103, 68 S.Ct. 431, 92 L.Ed. 568.
Not only is United States citizenship a 'high privilege,' it is a priceless treasure. For that citizenship is enriched beyond price by our goal of equal justice under lawequal justice not for citizens alone, but for all persons coming within the ambit of our power. This ideal gave birth to the constitutional provision for an independent judiciary with authority to check abuses of executive power and to issue writs of habeas corpus liberating persons illegally imprisoned.
First. In Part IV of its opinion the Court apparently bases its holding that the District Court was without jurisdiction on its own conclusion that the petition for habeas corpus failed to show facts authorizing the relief prayed for. But jurisdiction of a federal district court does not depend on whether the initial pleading sufficiently states a cause of action; if a court has jurisdiction of subject matter and parties, it should proceed to try the case, beginning with consideration of the pleadings. Bell v. Hood, 327 U.S. 678, 682683, 66 S.Ct. 773, 776, 90 L.Ed. 939; Ex parte Kawato, 317 U.S. 69, 71, 63 S.Ct. 115, 116, 87 L.Ed. 58.
Moreover, the question of whether the petition showed on its face that these prisoners had violated the laws of war, even if it were relevant, is not properly before this Court. The trial court did not reach that question because it concluded that their imprisonment outside its district barred it even from considering the petition; its doors were 'summarily closed.' And in reversing, the Court of Appeals specifically rejected requests that it consider the sufficiency of the petition, properly remanding the cause to the District Court for that determinationjust as this Court did in the Hood and Kawato cases, supra. The Government's petition for certiorari here presented no question except that of jurisdiction; and neither party has argued, orally or in briefs, that this Court should pass on the sufficiency of the petition. To decide this unargued question under these circumstances seems an unwarranted and highly improper deviation from ordinary judicial procedure. At the very least, fairness requires that the Court hear argument on this point.
Despite these objections, the Court now proceeds to find a 'war crime' in the fact that after Germany had surrendered these prisoners gave certain information to Japanese military forces. I am not convinced that this unargued question is correctly decided. The petition alleges that when the information was given, the accused were 'under the control of the armed forces of the Japanese Empire,' in Japanese-occupied territory. Whether obedience to commands of their Japanese superiors would in itself constitute 'unlawful' belligerency in violation of the laws of war is not so simple a question as the Court assumes. The alleged circumstances, if proven, would place these Germans in much the same position as patriotic French, Dutch, or Norwegian soldiers who fought on with the British after their homelands officially surrendered to Nazi Germany. There is not the slightest intimation that the accused were spies, or engaged in cruelty, torture, or any conduct other than that which soldiers or civilians might properly perform when entangled in their country's war. It must be remembered that legitimate 'acts of warfare,' however murderous, do not justify criminal conviction. In Ex parte Quirin, 317 U.S. 1, 3031, 63 S.Ct. 2, 1112, 87 L.Ed. 3, we cautioned that military tribunals can punish only 'unlawful' combatants; it is no 'crime' to be a soldier. See also Dow v. Johnson, 100 U.S. 158, 169, 25 L.Ed. 632; Ford v. Surget, 97 U.S. 594, 605606, 24 L.Ed. 1018. Certainly decisions by the trial court and the Court of Appeals concerning applicability of that principle to these facts would be helpful, as would briefs and arguments by the adversary parties. It should not be decided by this Court now without that assistance, particularly since failure to remand deprives these petitioners of any right to meet alleged deficiencies by amending their petitions.
If the opinion thus means, and it apparently does, that these petitioners are deprived of the privilege of habeas corpus solely because they were convicted and imprisoned overseas, the Court is adopting a broad and dangerous principle. The range of that principle is underlined by the argument of the Government brief that habeas corpus is not even available for American citizens convicted and imprisoned in Germany by American military tribunals. While the Court wisely disclaims any such necessary effect for its holding, rejection of the Government's argument is certainly made difficult by the logic of today's opinion. Conceivably a majority may hereafter find citizenship a sufficient substitute for territorial jurisdiction and thus permit courts to protect Americans from illegal sentences. But the Court's opinion inescapably denies courts power to afford the least bit of protection for any alien who is subject to our occupation government abroad, even if he is neither enemy nor belligerent and even after peace is officially declared.
Conquest by the United States, unlike conquest by many other nations, does not mean tyranny. For our people 'choose to maintain their greatness by justice rather than violence.'
From January 1948 to today, motions for leave to file petitions for habeas corpus in this Court, and applications treated by the Court as such, on behalf of over 200 German enemy aliens confined by American military authorities abroad were filed and denied. Brandt v. United States, and 13 companion cases, 333 U.S. 836, 68 S.Ct. 603, 92 L.Ed. 1119; In re Eichel (one petition on behalf of three persons), 333 U.S. 865, 68 S.Ct. 787, 92 L.Ed. 1144; Everett v. Truman (one petition on behalf of 74 persons), 334 U.S. 824, 68 S.Ct. 1081, 92 L.Ed. 1753; In re Krautwurst, and 11 companion cases, 334 U.S. 826, 68 S.Ct. 1328, 92 L.Ed. 1754; In re Ehlen 'et al.,' and In re Girke 'et al.,' 334 U.S. 836, 68 S.Ct. 1491, 92 L.Ed. 1762; In re Gronwald 'et al.,' 334 U.S. 857, 68 S.Ct. 1522, 92 L.Ed. 1777; In re Stattmann, and 3 companion cases, 335 U.S. 805, 69 S.Ct. 18, 93 L.Ed. 362; In re Vetter, and 6 companion cases, 335 U.S. 841, 69 S.Ct. 59, 93 L.Ed. 392; In re Eckstein, 335 U.S. 851, 69 S.Ct. 79, 93 L.Ed. 399; In re Heim, 335 U.S. 856, 69 S.Ct. 126, 93 L.Ed. 404; In re Dammann, and 4 companion cases, 336 U.S. 922923, 69 S.Ct. 644, 93 L.Ed. 1084; In re Muhlbauer, and 57 companion cases, covering at least 80 persons, 336 U.S. 964, 69 S.Ct. 930, 93 L.Ed. 1115; In re Felsch, 337 U.S. 953, 69 S.Ct. 1523, 93 L.Ed. 1754; In re Buerger, 338 U.S. 884, 70 S.Ct. 183; In re Hans, 339 U.S. 976, 70 S.Ct. 1007; In re Schmidt, 339 U.S. 976, 70 S.Ct. 1007; Lammers v. U.S., 339 U.S. 976, 70 S.Ct. 1008. And see also Milch v. United States, 332 U.S. 789, 68 S.Ct. 92, 92 L.Ed. 371.
'Whenever it is made known to the President that any citizen of the United States has been unjustly deprived of his liberty by or under the authority of any foreign government, it shall be the duty of the President forthwith to demand of that government the reasons of such imprisonment; and if it appears to be wrongful and in violation of the rights of American citizenship, the President shall forthwith demand the release of such citizen, and if the release so demanded is unreasonably delayed or refused, the President shall use such means, not amounting to acts of war, as he may think necessary and proper to obtain or effectuate the release; and all the facts and proceedings relative thereto shall as soon as practicable be communicated by the President to Congress.' 15 Stat. 224, 8 U.S.C. 903b, 8 U.S.C.A. § 903b.
'* * * In 1798, the 5th Congress passed three acts in rapid succession, 'An Act concerning Aliens', approved June 25, 1798 (
1 Stat. 570), 'An Act respecting Alien Enemies', approved July 6, 1798 (
1 Stat. 577, 50 U.S.C.A. § 21 et seq.), and 'An Act in addition to the act, entitled 'An act for the punishment of certain crimes against the United States", approved July 14, 1798. (
1 Stat. 596.) The first and last were the Alien and Sedition Acts, vigorously attacked in Congress and by the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions as unconstitutional. But the members of Congress who vigorously fought the Alien Act saw no objection to the Alien Enemy Act. (8 Annals of Cong. 2035 (5th Cong., 1798).) In fact, Albert Gallatin, who led that opposition, was emphatic in distinguishing between the two bills and in affirming the constitutional power of Congress over alien enemies as part of the power to declare war. (Id. at 1980.) James Madison was the author of the Virginia Resolutions, and in his report to the Virginia House of Delegates the ensuing year after the deluge of controversy, he carefully and with some tartness asserted a distinction between alien members of a hostile nation and alien members of a friendly nation, disavowed any relation of the Resolutions to alien enemies, and declared, 'With respect to alien enemies, no doubt has been intimated as to the federal authority over them; the Constitution having expressly delegated to Congress the power to declare war against any nation, and of course to treat it and all its members as enemies.' (Madison's Report, 4 Elliot's Deb. 546, 554 (1800).) Thomas Jefferson wrote the Kentucky Resolutions, and he was meticulous in identifying the Act under attack as the Alien Act 'which assumes power over alien friends'. (Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 and 1799, 4 Elliot's Deb. 540, 541.) It is certain that in the white light which beat about the subject in 1798, if there had been the slightest question in the minds of the authors of the Constitution or their contemporaries concerning the constitutionality of the Alien Enemy Act, it would have appeared. None did.
28 U.S.C. 2243, 28 U.S.C.A. § 2243, provides in part: 'Unless the application for the writ and the return present only issues of law the person to whom the writ is directed shall be required to produce at the hearing the body of the person detained.'