Source: http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0378_0500_ZO.html
Timestamp: 2013-12-10 08:29:37
Document Index: 695026042

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 6', '§ 785', '§ 6', '§ 7', '§ 3', '§ 6', '§ 15', '§ 2', '§ 781', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 6', '§ 2', '§ 9', '§ 159', '§ 6']

No. 461 Argued: April 21, 1964 --- Decided: June 22, 1964
This appeal involves a single question: the constitutionality of § 6 of the Subversive Activities Control Act of 1950, 64 Stat. 993, 50 U.S.C. § 785. Section 6 provides in pertinent part that: (a) When a Communist organization [n1] . . . is registered, or there is in effect a final order of the Board requiring such organization to register, it shall [p502] be unlawful for any member of such organization, with knowledge or notice that such organization is so registered or that such order has become final --
On the basis of this conclusion, the examiners recommended that the passport revocations be sustained. [n3] Both appellants appealed to the Board of Passport Appeals, which recommended affirmance of the revocations. The Secretary of State subsequently approved the recommendations of the Board. The Secretary stated that he "relied solely on the evidence in the record," and that, as the basis of his decision, he: specifically adopted as his own the [Board's] finding of fact that, "at all material times, [appellants were members] of the Communist Party of the United States with knowledge or notice that such organization had been required to register as a Communist organization under the Subversive Activities Control Act."
The three-judge District Court, which was convened to review the constitutional question, rejected appellants' contentions, sustained the constitutionality of § 6 of the Control Act, and granted the Secretary's motion for summary judgment. 219 F.Supp. 709. The court concluded that: the enactment by Congress of section 6, which prohibits these plaintiffs from obtaining passports so long as they are members of an organization -- in this case the Communist Party -- under a final order to register with the Attorney General . . . , is a valid exercise of the power of Congress to protect and preserve our Government against the threat posed by the world Communist movement, and that the regulatory [p505] scheme bears a reasonable relation thereto.
In 1958, in Kent v. Dulles, 357 U.S. 116, 127, this Court declared that the right to travel abroad is "an important aspect of the citizen's ‘liberty'" guaranteed in the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. The Court stated that: The right to travel is a part of the "liberty" of which the citizen cannot be deprived without due process of law under the Fifth Amendment. . . . Freedom of movement across frontiers in either direction, and inside frontiers as well, was a part of our heritage. Travel abroad, like travel within the country, . . . may be as close to the heart of the [p506] individual as the choice of what he eats, or wears, or reads. Freedom of movement is basic in our scheme of values. [n5]
Id. at 130. Two years later, in Communist Party of the United States v. Subversive Activities Control Board, supra, this Court reviewed and upheld the registration requirement of § 7 of the Control Act. The Court, however, did not pass upon the "various consequences of the Party's registration for its individual members," id. at 70, because: It is wholly speculative now to foreshadow whether, or under what conditions, a member of the Party may in the future apply for a passport, or seek government or defense facility or labor union employment, or, being an alien, become a party to a naturalization or a denaturalization proceeding. None of these things may happen. If they do, appropriate administrative and judicial procedures will be available to test the constitutionality of applications of particular sections of the Act to particular persons in [p507] particular situations. Nothing justifies previsioning those issues now.
See, e.g., NAACP v. Button, 371 U.S. 415, 438; Louisiana ex rel. Gremillion v. NAACP, 366 U.S. 293; Shelton v. Tucker, 364 U.S. 479, 488; Schware v. Board of Bar Examiners, 353 U.S. 232, 239; Martin v. Struthers, 319 U.S. 141, 146-149; Cantwell v. Connecticut, 310 U.S. 296, 304-307; Schneider v. State, 308 U.S. 147, 161, 165. In applying this principle the Court in NAACP v. Alabama, supra, referred to the criteria enunciated in Shelton v. Tucker, supra, at 488: [E]ven though the governmental purpose be legitimate and substantial, that purpose cannot be pursued by means that broadly stifle fundamental personal liberties when the end can be more narrowly achieved. The breadth of legislative abridgment must be viewed in the light of less drastic means for achieving the same basic purpose.
Since this case involves a personal liberty protected by the Bill of Rights, we believe that the proper approach to legislation curtailing that liberty must be that adopted by this Court in NAACP v. Button, 371 U.S. 415, and Thornhill v. Alabama, 310 U.S. 88. In NAACP v. Button, the Court stated that: [I]n appraising a statute's inhibitory effect upon such rights, this Court has not hesitated to take into account possible applications of the statute in other factual contexts besides that at bar. Thornhill v. Alabama, 310 U.S. 88, 97-98; Winters v. New York [333 U.S. 507], 518-520. Cf. Staub v. City of Baxley, 355 U.S. 313. . . . The objectionable quality of vagueness and overbreadth does not depend upon absence of fair notice to a criminally accused or upon unchanneled delegation of legislative powers, but upon the danger of tolerating, in the area of First Amendment freedoms, the existence of a penal statute susceptible of sweeping and improper application. Cf. Marcus v. Search Warrant, 367 U.S. 717, 733. These freedoms are delicate and vulnerable, as well as supremely precious in our society. The threat of sanctions may deter their exercise almost as potently as the actual application of sanctions.
371 U.S. at 432-433. [p517] For essentially the same reasons, this Court had concluded that the constitutionality of the statute in Thornhill v. Alabama should be judged on its face: An accused, after arrest and conviction under such a statute [on its face unconstitutionally abridging freedom of speech], does not have to sustain the burden of demonstrating that the State could not constitutionally have written a different and specific statute covering his activities as disclosed by the charge and the evidence introduced against him.
1. Paragraph 5 of § 3 of the Act provides that:
2. Section 6(b) provides that: When an organization is registered, or there is in effect a final order of the Board requiring an organization to register, as a Communist action organization, it shall be unlawful for any officer or employee of the United States to issue a passport to, or renew the passport of, any individual knowing or having reason to believe that such individual is a member of such organization.
The criminal penalties for violations of § 6 are specified in § 15(c) of the Act, which provides in pertinent part that: Any individual who violates any provision of section 5, 6, or 10 of this title shall, upon conviction thereof, be punished for each such violation by a fine of not more than $10,000 or by imprisonment for not more than five years, or by both such fine and imprisonment.
3. Appellants do not question that the hearings afforded them procedural due process of law. Cf. Greene v. McElroy, 360 U.S. 474.
5. In Bolling v. Sharpe, 347 U.S. 497, 499-500, this Court stated that:
7. E.g., Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen v. Virginia State Bar, 377 U.S. l; Gibson v. Florida Legislative Investigation Comm., 372 U.S. 539; NAACP v. Button, 371 U.S. 415"]371 U.S. 415; Louisiana ex rel. Gremillion v. NAACP, 366 U.S. 293; 371 U.S. 415; Louisiana ex rel. Gremillion v. NAACP, 366 U.S. 293; Shelton v. Tucker, 364 U.S. 479"]364 U.S. 479; Bates v. City of Little Rock, 361 U.S. 516; 364 U.S. 479; Bates v. City of Little Rock, 361 U.S. 516; NAACP v. Alabama ex rel. Patterson, 357 U.S. 449; Schneider v. State, 308 U.S. 147.
8. The purpose of the Act is stated in § 2. 64 Stat. 987, 50 U.S.C. § 781. Congress found, as is generally stated in § 2(1), that there
Congress concluded, as stated in § 2(15), that the "Communist organization in the United States" and the world Communist movement present a danger to the security of the United States, a danger requiring legislative action. The congressional purpose in adopting § 6 is more specifically stated in § 2(8): Due to the nature and scope of the world Communist movement, with the existence of affiliated constituent elements working toward common objectives in various countries of the world, travel of Communist members, representatives, and agents from country to country facilitates communication and is a prerequisite for the carrying on of activities to further the purposes of the Communist movement.
9. The provision in question cannot, as the Government admits, be limited by adopting an interpretation analogous to this Court's interpretation of the so-called "membership clause" in the Smith Act. In Scales v. United States, 367 U.S. 203, the Smith Act, which imposes criminal penalties for membership, was interpreted to include only "‘active' members having also a guilty knowledge and intent." Id.. at 228. The membership clause in that case, however, explicitly required "that a defendant must have knowledge of the organization's illegal advocacy." Id. at 221. That requirement was intimately connected with the construction limiting membership to "active" members. With regard to the Control Act, however, as the Government concedes, "neither the words nor history of Section 6 suggests limiting its application to ‘active' members."
10. In denying appellants passports, the Secretary of State made no finding as to their purposes in traveling abroad. T he statute, as noted, supports the Secretary's implicit conclusion that such a finding was irrelevant. Appellants, however, in their respective complaints, stated their purposes. Appellant Aptheker alleged that: He desires to travel to countries of Europe and elsewhere for study and recreation, to observe social, political and economic conditions abroad, and thereafter to write, publish, teach and lecture in this country about his observations. He also desires to travel abroad in order to attend meetings of learned societies and to fulfill invitations to lecture abroad.
Appellant Flynn alleged that: [She] desires to travel to countries of Europe and elsewhere for recreation and study, to observe social, political and economic conditions abroad, and thereafter to write, publish and lecture about her observations.
11. The abridgment of liberty involved in this case is more "drastic" than, and distinguishable from, that involved in American Communications Assn. v. Douds, 339 U.S. 382. In Douds, the Court upheld § 9(h) of the National Labor Relations Act as amended by the Taft-Hartley Act, 61 Stat. 136, 146, 29 U.S.C. § 159(h), which conditions trade union access to the facilities of the National Labor Relations Board upon the submission of non-Communist affidavits by officers of the union. Although the requirement undoubtedly discouraged unions from choosing officers with Communist affiliations, it did not prohibit their election, and did not affect basic individual rights to work and to union membership.
12. In 1950, the Assistant to the Attorney General of the United States, Peyton Ford, expressed to Congress the views of the Department of Justice with regard to a proposed government loyalty bill which predicated a conclusive presumption of disloyalty on the fact of organizational membership. Mr. Ford said: A world of difference exists, from the standpoint of sound policy and constitutional validity, between making, as the bill would, membership in an organization designated by the Attorney General a felony, and recognizing such membership, as does the employee loyalty program under Executive Order 9835, as merely one piece of evidence pointing to possible disloyalty. The bill would brand the member of a listed organization a felon no matter how innocent his membership; the loyalty program enables the member to respond to charges against him and to show, in a manner consistent with American concepts of justice and fairness, that his membership is innocent, and does not reflect upon his loyalty.
13. The Government recognizes, however, that: "Membership, or even leadership, in the Communist Party is not automatically a crime." Brief for Petitioner on Petition for a Writ of Certiorari, p. 11, United States v. Communist Party of the United States, No. 1027, O.T. 1963, cert. denied, 377 U.S. 968.
14. For appellants' alleged purposes in traveling, see note 10, supra.
15. See Freund, The Supreme Court of the United States (1961), pp. 67-69; Note, 61 Harv.L.Rev. 1208 (1948); Note, 109 U.Pa.L.Rev. 67, 75-85 (1960).
16. Nor, in our opinion, should the Secretary of State or other government officers be exposed to the risk of criminal penalties for violating § 6(b) by issuing a passport to a member of a registered Communist action organization who is subsequently found by a court to be a person whose travel, contrary to the belief of the government officer, could constitutionally be prohibited.