Source: http://openjurist.org/print/27196
Timestamp: 2015-08-05 06:43:35
Document Index: 594137464

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 19', '§ 19', '§ 151', '§ 19', '§ 19', '§ 19']

363 US 405 Kimm v. K Rosenberg
Home > 363 US 405 Kimm v. K Rosenberg
363 US 405 Kimm v. K Rosenberg 363 U.S. 405
80 S.Ct. 1139
4 L.Ed.2d 1299
Diamond KIMM, Petitioner,v.George K. ROSENBERG, District Director, Immigration and Naturalization Service.
Argued May 16 and 17, 1960.
Petitioner contends that he presented 'clear affirmative evidence' as to eligibility which stands uncontradicted and that the burden was on the Government to show his affiliations, if any, with the Party. He contends that the disqualifying factor of Communist Party membership is an exception to § 19(c) which the Government must prove. We think not. Rather than a proviso, it is an absolute disqualification, since that class of aliens is carved out of the section at its very beginning by the words 'other than one to whom subsection (d) of this section is applicable.1 Subsection (d)2 referred to aliens deportable under the Act of October 16, 1918. Section 22 of the Internal Security Act of 1950 amended the 1918 Act to include Communists,3 and thus terminated the discretionary authority under § 19(c) as to any alien who was deportable because of membership in the Communist Party. Petitioner offered no evidence on this point, although the regulations place on him the burden of proof as to 'the statutory requirements precedent to the exercise of discretionary relief.' 8 CFR, 1949 ed., § 151.3(e), as amended, 15 Fed.Reg. 7638. This regulation is completely consistent with § 19(c). The language of that section, in contrast with the statutory provisions governing deportation, imposes the general burden of proof upon the applicant.
It follows that an applicant for suspension, 'a matter of discretion and of administrative grace,' U.S. ex rel. Hintopoulos v. Shaughnessy, 1957, 353 U.S. 72, 77, 77 S.Ct. 618, 621, 1 L.Ed.2d 652, must, upon the request of the Attorney General, supply such information that is within his knowledge and has a direct bearing on his eligibility under the statute. The Attorney General may, of course, exercise his authority of grace through duly delegated agents. Jay v. Boyd, 1956, 351 U.S. 345, 76 S.Ct. 919, 100 L.Ed. 1242. Perhaps the petitioner was justified in his personal refusal to answer—a question we do not pass upon—but this did not relieve him under the statute of the burden of establishing the authority of the Attorney General to exercise his discretion in the first place.
It has become much the fashion to impute wrongdoing to or do impose punishment on a person for invoking his constitutional rights.1 Lloyd Barenblatt has served a jail sentence for invoking his First Amendment rights. See Barenblatt v. United States, 360 U.S. 109, 79 S.Ct. 1081, 3 L.Ed.2d 1115. As this is written, Dr. Willard Uphaus, as a consequence of our decision in Uphaus v. Wyman, 360 U.S. 72, 79 S.Ct. 1040, 3 L.Ed.2d 1090, is in jail in New Hampshire for invoking rights guaranteed to him by the First and Fourteenth Amendments. So is the mathematician, Horace Chandler Davis, who invoked the First Amendment against the House Un-American Activities Committee. Davis v. United States, 6 Cir., 269 F.2d 357. Today we allow invocation of the Fifth Amendment to serve, in effect though not in terms, as proof that an alien lacks the 'good moral character' which he must have under § 19(c) of the Immigration Act in order to become eligible for the dispensing powers entrusted to the Attorney General.
The import of what we do is underlined by the fact that there is not a shred of evidence of bad character in the record against this alien. The alien has fully satisfied the requirements of § 19(c) as shown by the record. He entered as a student in 1928 and pursued his studies until 1938. He planned to return to Korea but the outbreak of hostilities between China and Japan in 1937 changed his mind. Since 1938 he has been continuously employed in gainful occupations. That is the sole basis of his deportability.2 The record shows no criminal convictions, nothing that could bring stigma to the man. His employment since 1938 has been as manager of a produce company, as chemist, as foundry worker, and as a member of O.S.S. during the latter part of World War II. He also was self-employed in the printing business, publishing a paper 'Korean Independence.' No one came forward to testify that he was a Communist. There is not a word of evidence that he had been a member of the Communist Party at any time. The only thing that stands in his way of being eligible for suspension of deportation by the Attorney General is his invocation of the Fif