Source: http://www.bardavidlaw.com/research/important-cases/supreme-court-decisions/carlson-v-landon-342-u-s-524-1952
Timestamp: 2018-10-23 10:51:51
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Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 23', '§ 20', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 22', '§ 22', '§ 137', '§ 3143', '§ 458', '§ 133', '§ 23', '§ 23', '§ 23']

Carlson v Landon, 342 U.S. 524 (1952) | Bardavid Law
Home » resources and research » Important Cases » Supreme Court decisions » Carlson v Landon, 342 U.S. 524 (1952)
526*526 John T. McTernan argued the cause and John W. Porter, Ben Margolis, Carol King and A. L. Wirin filed a brief for petitioners in No. 35.
These cases present a narrow question with several related issues. May the Attorney General, as the executive head of the Immigration and Naturalization Service,[1] after taking into custody active alien Communists on warrants,[2] charging either membership in a group that advocates 527*527 the overthrow by force of this Government[3] or inclusion in any prohibited classes of aliens,[4] continue them in custody without bail, at his discretion pending determination as to their deportability, under § 23 of the 528*528 Internal Security Act?[5] Differing views of the Courts of Appeals led us to grant certiorari. 342 U. S. 807, 810.
I. Facts.—The four petitioners in case No. 35 were arrested under warrants, issued after the enactment of the Internal Security Act of 1950, charging each with being an alien who was a member of the Communist Party of the United States.[6] The warrants directed that they be held in custody,[7] pending determination 529*529 of deportability.[8] Petitions for habeas corpus were promptly filed alleging that the detention without bond was in violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment[9] and the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and that § 20 of the Immigration Act, as amended, was also unconstitutional. See note 5, supra. The allegation appears below.[10]
Respondent filed returns defending his orders of detention on the ground that there was reasonable cause to believe that petitioners’ release would be prejudicial to the public interest and would endanger the welfare and safety of the United States. These returns were countered by petitioners with allegations of their many years’ residence spent in this country without giving basis for fear of action by them inimical to the public welfare during the pendency of their deportation proceedings, 530*530 their integration into community life through marriage and family connections, and their meticulous adherence to the terms of previous bail, allowed under a former warrant charging deportability. See note 8, supra. On consideration of these undenied allegations, the trial court determined that the Director had not been shown to have abused his discretion.[11] This order was reversed on the ground that the Director “must state some fact upon which a reasonable person could logically conclude that the denial of bail is required to protect the country or to secure the alleged alien’s presence for deportation should an order to that effect be the result of the hearing.”[12]
On rehearing, the Director made allegation, supported by affidavits, that the Service’s dossier of each petitioner contained evidence indicating to him that each was at the time of arrest a member of the Communist Party of the United States and had since 1930 participated or was then actively participating in the Party’s indoctrination of others to the prejudice of the public interest. There was no denial of these allegations by any of the petitioners, except Hyun, or any assertion that any of them had completely severed all Communist affiliations or connections.[13] As to Hyun the denial was formal and did not include any affidavit denying the facts stated in the Director’s affidavit. As the allegations are set out by the Court of Appeals in the carefully detailed opinion of Circuit Judge Stephens, we refrain from any further restatement 531*531 here.[14] The Court of Appeals affirmed the District Court’s determination that there was substantial evidence to support the discretion exercised in denying bail.
Thereupon respondent filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, challenging the validity of his detention without bail. The District Court found that petitioner was an alien and had been and was on arrest a member of the Communist Party. The court determined 532*532 that there had been no abuse of administrative discretion in refusing bail and denied the petition for habeas corpus.[15]
“Discretion does not mean decision upon one particular fact or set of facts. It means rather a just 533*533 and proper decision in view of all the attending circumstances. The Styria v. Morgan, 186 U. S. 1, 9, 22 S. Ct. 731, 46 L. Ed. 1027. There are many circumstances which involve decision.” 187 F. 2d 802, 803.
II. The Issues.—Petitioners in No. 35, the Carlson case, and respondent in No. 136, the Zydok case, seek respectively reversal or affirmance principally on the same grounds. It is urged that the denial of bail to each was arbitrary and capricious, a violation of the Fifth Amendment; 534*534 that where there is no evidence to justify a fear of unavailability for the hearings or for the carrying out of a possible judgment of deportation, denial of bail under the circumstances of these cases is an abuse of discretion and violates a claimed right to reasonable bail secured by the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution. Zydok urges, also, that there was an abuse of discretion in rearresting him, when there was no change of circumstances, after his previous release under bond on the same warrant. There are other minor contentions as to irregularities in the proceedings that appear to us immaterial to our consideration of these cases.
Changes in world politics and in our internal economy bring legislative adjustments affecting the rights of various classes of aliens to admission and deportation.[19] The 535*535 passage of the Internal Security Act of 1950 marked such a change of attitude toward alien members of the Communist Party of the United States. Theretofore there was a provision for the deportation of alien anarchists and other aliens, who are or were members of organizations devoted to the overthrow by force and violence of the Government of the United States, but the Internal Security Act made Communist membership alone of aliens a sufficient ground for deportation.[20] The reasons for the exercise of power are summarized in Title I of the Internal Security Act. It is sufficient here to print § 2 (15).[21] We have no doubt that the doctrines and practices of 536*536 Communism clearly enough teach the use of force to achieve political control to give constitutional basis, according to any theory of reasonableness or arbitrariness, for Congress to expel known alien Communists under its power to regulate the exclusion, admission and expulsion of aliens.[22] Congress had before it evidence of resident aliens’ leadership in Communist domestic activities sufficient to furnish reasonable ground for action against alien resident Communists. The bar against the admission of Communists cannot be differentiated as a matter of power from that against anarchists upheld unanimously half a century ago in the exclusion of Turner.[23] Since “[i]t is thoroughly established that Congress has power to order the deportation of aliens whose presence in the country it deems hurtful,”[24] the fact that petitioners, and respondent Zydok, were made deportable after entry is immaterial. They are deported for what they are now, not for what they were.[25] Otherwise, when an alien once legally became a denizen of this country he could not be deported 537*537 for any reason of which he had not been forewarned at the time of entry. Mankind is not vouchsafed sufficient foresight to justify requiring a country to permit its continuous occupation in peace or war by legally admitted aliens, even though they never violate the laws in effect at their entry. The protection of citizenship is open to those who qualify for its privileges. The lack of a clause in the Constitution specifically empowering such action has never been held to render Congress impotent to deal as a sovereign with resident aliens.[26]
Deportation is not a criminal proceeding and has never been held to be punishment. No jury sits. No judicial review is guaranteed by the Constitution.[28] Since deportation is a particularly drastic remedy where aliens have 538*538 become absorbed into our community life,[29] Congress has been careful to provide for full hearing by the Immigration and Naturalization Service before deportation. Such legislative provision requires that those charged with that responsibility exercise it in a manner consistent with due process.[30] Detention is necessarily a part of this deportation procedure. Otherwise aliens arrested for deportation would have opportunities to hurt the United States during the pendency of deportation proceedings. Of course purpose to injure could not be imputed generally to all aliens subject to deportation, so discretion was placed by the 1950 Act in the Attorney General to detain aliens without bail, as set out in note 5, supra.[31]
The change in language seems to have originated in H. R. 10, 81st Cong., 1st Sess., introduced by Representative Sam Hobbs of Alabama on January 3, 1949. It was 539*539 intended to clarify the procedure in dealing with deportees and to “expressly authorize the Attorney General, in his discretion, to hold arrested aliens in custody.”[32] The need for clarification arose from varying interpretations of the authority to grant bail under the former bail provision. Note 31, supra. In Prentis v. Manoogian, 16 F. 2d 422, 424, the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit had held that by the earlier provision “Congress intended to grant to the alien a right, and that its failure to follow with some such phrase as `at the discretion of the commissioner’ vests the discretion to avail himself of the opportunity afforded in the alien, and not the discretion to allow bail in the commissioner or director.” On the other hand in United States ex rel. Zapp v. District Director, 120 F. 2d 762, the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit construed the provision to the contrary. It said:
In the later case of United States ex rel. Potash v. District Director, 169 F. 2d 747, the same court applied its Zapp opinion to explain that the Service’s discretion as to bail was not untrammeled but subject to judicial review.[33] It 540*540 was in the light of these cases that Congress inserted in the bail provisions the phrase “in the discretion of the Attorney General,” the lack of which very phrase the Manoogian case held made bail a right of the detained alien. The present statute does not grant bail as a matter of right.
The Government does not urge that the Attorney General’s discretion is not subject to any judicial review, but merely that his discretion can be overturned only on a showing of clear abuse.[34] We proceed on the basis suggested by the Government. It is first to be observed that the language of the reports is emphatic in explaining Congress’ intention to make the Attorney General’s exercise of discretion presumptively correct and unassailable except for abuse. We think the discretion reposed in the Attorney General is at least as great as that found by the Second Circuit in the Potash case, supra, to be in him under the former bail provision. It can only be 541*541 overridden where it is clearly shown that it “was without a reasonable foundation.”
The four petitioners in the Carlson case were active in Communist work. In the Zydok case the only evidence is membership in the Party, attendance at closed sessions and the holding of the office of financial secretary of its Hamtramck Division. This evidence goes beyond unexplained membership and shows a degree, minor perhaps in Zydok’s case, of participation in Communist activities. As the purpose of the Internal Security Act to deport all alien Communists as a menace to the security of the United States is established by the Internal Security Act itself, Title I, § 2, we conclude that the discretion as to bail in the Attorney General was certainly broad enough to justify his detention of all these parties without bail as a menace to the public interest. As all alien Communists are deportable, like Anarchists, because of Congress’ understanding of their attitude toward the use of force and violence in such a constitutional democracy as ours to accomplish their political aims, evidence of membership plus personal activity in supporting and extending the Party’s philosophy concerning violence gives adequate ground for detention. It cannot be expected that the Government should be required in addition to show specific acts of sabotage or incitement to subversive action. Such an exercise of discretion is well within that heretofore approved in Knauff v. Shaughnessy, 338 U. S. 537, 541.[35] There is no 542*542 evidence or contention that all persons arrested as deportable under § 22 of the Internal Security Act, note 4, supra, for Communist membership are denied bail. In fact, a report filed with this Court by the Department of Justice in this case at our request shows allowance of bail in the large majority of cases. The refusal of bail in these cases is not arbitrary or capricious or an abuse of power. There is no denial of the due process of the Fifth Amendment under circumstances where there is reasonable apprehension of hurt from aliens charged with a philosophy of violence against this Government.
B. Delegation of Legislative Power.—This leaves for consideration the constitutionality of this delegation of authority. We consider first the objection to the alleged unbridled delegation of legislative power in that the Attorney General is left without standards to determine when to admit to bail and when to detain. It is familiar law that in such an examination the entire Act is to be looked at and the meaning of the words determined by their surroundings and connections. Congress can only legislate so far as is reasonable and practicable, and must leave to executive officers the authority to accomplish its purpose.[36] Congress need not make specific standards for each subsidiary executive action in carrying out a policy.[37] The bail provision applies to many 543*543 classes of deportable aliens other than those named in the classes listed in § 22 of the Internal Security Act. See note 4, supra.[38] A wide range of discretion in the Attorney General as to bail is required to meet the varying situations arising from the many aliens in this country.[39]
The policy and standards as to what aliens are subject to deportation are, in general, clear and definite. 8 U. S. C. §§ 137 and 155. Specifically when dealing with alien Communists, as in these cases, the legislative standard for deportation is definite. See notes 3 and 4, supra. In carrying out that policy the Attorney General is not left with untrammeled discretion as to bail. Courts review his determination. Hearings are had, and he must justify his refusal of bail by reference to the legislative scheme to eradicate the evils of Communist activity. The legislative judgment of evils calling for the 1950 544*544 amendments to deportation legislation is set out in the introductory sections of the Subversive Activities Control Act.[40] So far as pertinent to these proceedings, the new legislation was designed to eliminate the subversive activities of resident aliens who seek to inculcate the doctrine of force and violence into the political philosophy of the American people. To this end provision was made for the detention and deportation of certain noncitizens, including members of the Communist Party. When in the judgment of the Attorney General an alien Communist may so conduct himself pending deportation hearings as to aid in carrying out the objectives of the world communist movement, that alien may be detained. Compare Yakus v. United States, 321 U. S. 414, and Bowles v. Willingham, 321 U. S. 503, 515. This is a permissible delegation of legislative power because the executive judgment is limited by adequate standards. The authority to detain without bail is to be exercised within the framework of the Subversive Activities Control Act to guard against Communist activities pending deportation hearings. Cf. Mahler v. Eby, 264 U. S. 32, 40. We do not see that such discretion violates the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment.
C. Violation of Eighth Amendment.—The contention is also advanced that the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution, note 9, supra, compels the allowance of bail in a reasonable amount. We have in the preceding sections of this opinion set out why this refusal of bail is not an abuse of power, arbitrary or capricious, and why the delegation of discretion to the Attorney General is not unconstitutional. Here we meet the argument that the Constitution requires by the Eighth Amendment, note 9, supra, the same reasonable bail for alien Communists under deportation charges as it accords citizens charged with bailable 545*545 criminal offenses. Obviously the cases cited by the applicants for habeas corpus fail flatly to support this argument.[41] We have found none that do.
The bail clause was lifted with slight changes from the English Bill of Rights Act.[42] In England that clause has never been thought to accord a right to bail in all cases,[43] but merely to provide that bail shall not be excessive in those cases where it is proper to grant bail. When this clause was carried over into our Bill of Rights, nothing was said that indicated any different concept.[44] The Eighth Amendment has not prevented Congress from defining the classes of cases in which bail shall be allowed in this country. Thus in criminal cases bail is not compulsory where the punishment may be death.[45] Indeed, 546*546 the very language of the Amendment fails to say all arrests must be bailable. We think, clearly, here that the Eighth Amendment does not require that bail be allowed under the circumstances of these cases.
IV. Rearrest.—Finally, respondent Zydok argues that his rearrest on the outstanding warrant, after he had once been released on bail, was improper. The inquiry on habeas corpus is limited to the propriety of Zydok’s present detention. McNally v. Hill, 293 U. S. 131, 136. While the Attorney General has made a satisfactory showing that he has good cause for detaining Zydok without bail, no order based on a new warrant has been entered.[46] Zydok did not allow the proceedings to run along but objected promptly by habeas corpus to detention under the warrant. It has been said that the rule in criminal cases is that a warrant once executed is exhausted.[47] This guards against precipitate rearrest. Where, however, the rearrest comes after the discovery of error in release, a new warrant is not necessarily required.[48] State cases have held that an escaped person or one who secured his 547*547 release by trick may be rearrested without a new warrant.[49] Although a warrant for rearrest is required by statute, when a convicted person is paroled his status on violation of the parole is the same as that of an escaped prisoner.[50] When a prisoner is out on bond he is still under court control, though the bounds of his confinement are enlarged. His bondsmen are his jailers.[51] While the bailsmen may arrest without warrant, the court proceeds under bench warrant to retake a prisoner. Cf. 18 U. S. C. § 3143.
Today the Court holds that law-abiding persons, neither charged with nor convicted of any crime, can be held in jail indefinitely, without bail, if a subordinate Washington bureau agent believes they are members of the Communist 548*548 Party, and therefore dangerous to the Nation because of the possibility of their “indoctrination of others.” Underlying this harsh holding are past decisions of this Court declaring that Congress may constitutionally direct the summary deportation of aliens for any reason it sees fit. I agree with MR. JUSTICE DOUGLAS for the reasons he gives in his dissenting opinion in Harisiades v. Shaughnessy, 342 U. S. 580, 598, that these prior declarations should now be reconsidered and rejected. This would dispose of these cases. But the Court today not only adheres to, but greatly expands the constitutional doctrine of the former cases. The Court also relies on the Internal Security Act of 1950, 64 Stat. 987, for its holding. MR. JUSTICE FRANKFURTER presents strong arguments for construing the Act so as to reach an opposite result. But even if authorized by that Act, as the majority holds, the denial of a right to bail under the circumstances of these cases strikes me as a shocking disregard of the following provisions of the Bill of Rights: Eighth Amendment’s ban against excessive bail;[1] First Amendment’s ban against abridgment of thought, speech and press;[2] Fifth Amendment’s ban against depriving a person of liberty without due process of law.[3] Before a detailed discussion of my several grounds of dissent it is necessary to state the facts and the precise issues the records present.
Respondent Zydok, petitioners Carlson and others were all arrested (“detained”) in connection with proceedings which might lead to their deportation. A subordinate of the Commissioner of Immigration, not the 549*549 Attorney General, directed that they be held in prison without bail. Of necessity, consideration of these deportation proceedings by bureaus and courts may last for years. Carlson’s has already dragged on for over four years. Moreover, even deportation orders at the end of such proceedings might not end their indeterminate jail sentences since the foreign countries to which they are ordered might refuse to admit them. Such refusals have prevented deportation in thousands of cases.[4] Thus denial of bail may well be the equivalent of a life sentence, at least for Zydok, 56 years old, and Carlisle whose health is bad. Such has become the fate of ordinary family people selected and classified, on secret information, as “dangerous” by Washington bureau agents.
While the Court gives Zydok a momentary technical respite, its holding means that he too, pursuant to the Government’s present program, can and will be held in jail without bond as a “dangerous” character. The others, with equally enviable records as law-abiding persons, are not even given a technical respite. Mrs. Stevenson is the wife of a citizen and is the mother of a young man who 550*550 is also a citizen. Her son has long been subject to attacks of undulant fever. He and his 70-year-old grandmother need Mrs. Stevenson’s help as does her husband who does her housework while she is “detained” as “dangerous” to our national security. The District Judge tried to persuade the representatives of the Immigration Bureau and the Attorney General to agree for him to enter an order fixing bail for her and for Mr. Carlisle. His request was refused.
The record does not leave us in doubt as to why bail was denied Mrs. Stevenson, Mr. Carlisle, or any of these allegedly “dangerous” aliens. Denial was not on the ground that if released they might try to evade obedience to possible deportation orders. The District Judge in No. 35 conceded that “there is nothing here to indicate the Government is fearful that they are going to leave the jurisdiction”; he said, “I am not going to release men and women that the Attorney General’s office says are security risks”; he also said, “I am not going to turn these people loose if they are Communists, any more than I would turn loose a deadly germ in this community. If that is my duty let the Circuit Court say so and assume that burden.”[5] These remarks to counsel show that he kept these people in jail only because he thought Communists, as such, were too dangerous to the Nation to be allowed to associate with other people. The Court of Appeals’ denial of bail was also based on the premise that Communists were too dangerous to the Nation to be left out of jail, not on the premise that deportation would be delayed or frustrated by granting bail. 187 F. 2d 991. 551*551 And the Solicitor General has admitted here that “the only evidence advanced to support their detention without bail was that they had been active in the Communist movement.” The majority here also appears to rest on the same basis. It must, unless it is now drawing inferences that some might flee and be unavailable for deportation. As the Government admits, there is not a vestige of support for such an inference.[6] Besides, an alien “who shall willfully fail or refuse to present himself for deportation . . . shall upon conviction be guilty of a felony, and shall be imprisoned not more than ten years . . . .” 64 Stat. 987, 1012.
Thus it clearly appears that these aliens are held in jail without bail for no reason except that “they had been active in the Communist movement.” From this it is concluded that their association with others would so imperil the Nation’s safety that they must be isolated from their families and communities. On this premise they would be just as dangerous whether aliens or citizens, deportable or not. Since it is not necessary to keep them in jail to assure their compliance with a deportation order, their imprisonment cannot possibly be intended as an aid to deportation. They are kept in jail solely because a bureau agent thinks that is where Communists should be. A power to put in jail because dangerous cannot be derived from a power to deport. Consequently prior cases holding that Congress has power to deport aliens provide no support at all for today’s holding that Congress 552*552 has power to authorize bureau agents to put “dangerous” people in jail without privilege of bail.
The stark fact is that if Congress can authorize imprisonment of “alien Communists” because dangerous, it can authorize imprisonment of citizen “Communists” on the same ground. And while this particular bureau campaign to fill the jails is said to be aimed at “dangerous” alien Communists only, peaceful citizens may be ensnared in the process. For the bureau agent is not required to prove that a person he throws in jail is an alien, or a Communist, or “dangerous.” The agent need only declare he has reason to believe that such is the case. The agent may be and here apparently was acting on the rankest hearsay evidence. The secret sources of his “information” may have been spies and informers, a class not usually rated as the most reliable by people who have had experience with them.[7] In this record the nearest approach to any identifiable source of information is that some of the jailed persons had admitted past membership in organizations listed by the Attorney General as “Communist,” or “Communist 553*553 front.” These listings are made by the Attorney General ex parte on secret dossiers containing statements from sources that the Attorney General refuses to reveal. A majority of this Court has held that such listings are illegal. Anti-Fascist Committee v. McGrath, 341 U. S. 123. This alone should be enough to reverse the judgments in No. 35. My own judgment is that Congress has not authorized the Bureau of Immigration to hold people in jail without bond solely because it believes them “dangerous.” Nor do I think that Congress has power to grant any such authority even if it had attempted to do so.
The Government finds a power to so delegate in provisions of the Alien Registration Act of 1940, 8 U. S. C. 554*554 § 458 (a) and in the President’s Reorganization Plan No. 2 of 1950, 5 U. S. C. (Supp. IV) following § 133z-15. These provisions are in such broad general terms that they could be read as allowing the Attorney General to delegate all his discretionary duties. But the gravity of a discretionary power to seize people and keep them in jail without a right of bail warns against implying such an unlimited power to delegate it. It is bad enough to read an Act as vesting even the Nation’s chief prosecutor with power to determine what individuals he prosecutes should be held in jail without bail. Delegating and redelegating this dangerous power to subordinates entrusted with duties like those of deputy sheriffs and policemen raises serious procedural due process questions. I am not willing to imply that Congress has granted power to make such delegations which so ominously threaten the liberty of individuals. Consequently, assuming constitutionality of § 23, I would hold that it vests power in the Attorney General alone to decide whether a person should be denied bail.
Surely it is not consistent with procedural due process of law for prosecuting attorneys or their law enforcement subordinates to make final determinations as to whether persons they accuse of something shall remain in jail indefinitely awaiting a decision as to the truthfulness of the accusations against them. In effect that was done here. I have already referred to the trial judge’s statement in No. 35 that he was not going to release people the Attorney General deemed to be bad security risks. Moreover, the immigration official’s mere belief based on statements coming from unidentified persons was accepted by both trial judges as casting on each alleged “alien Communist” the burden of proving he was not a Communist by 555*555 clear and convincing evidence. And their refusal to incriminate themselves by denying the immigration officer’s suspicions was accepted as sufficient proof to keep them behind the jail doors. I think that condemning people to jail is a job for the judiciary in accordance with procedural “due process of law.”[8] To farm out this responsibility to the police and prosecuting attorneys is a judicial abdication in which I will have no part.
Third. As previously pointed out, the basis of holding these people in jail is a fear that they may indoctrinate people with Communist beliefs. To put people in jail for fear of their talk seems to me to be an abridgment of speech in flat violation of the First Amendment. I have to admit, however, that this is a logical application of recent cases watering down constitutional liberty of speech.[9] I also realize that many believe that Communists and “fellow travelers” should not be accorded any of the First Amendment’s protections. My belief is that we must have freedom of speech, press and religion for all or we may eventually have it for none. I further believe that the First Amendment grants an absolute right to believe in any governmental system, discuss all governmental affairs, and argue for desired changes in the existing order. This freedom is too dangerous for bad, tyrannical governments to permit. But those who wrote and adopted our First Amendment weighed those dangers against the dangers of censorship and deliberately chose the First Amendment’s unequivocal command that freedom of assembly, petition, speech and press shall not be abridged. I happen to believe this was a wise choice and that our free way of life enlists such respect and love that 556*556 our Nation cannot be imperiled by mere talk. This belief of mine may and I suppose does influence me to protest whenever I think I see even slight encroachments on First Amendment liberties. But the encroachment here is not small. True it is mainly those alleged to be present or past “Communists” who are now being jailed for their beliefs and expressions. But we cannot be sure more victims will not be offered up later if the First Amendment means no more than its enemies or even some of its friends believe it does.
Fourth. I think § 23 as construed and as here applied violates the command of the Eighth Amendment that “Excessive bail shall not be required . . . .” Under one of the Government’s contentions, which the Court apparently adopts, the Eighth Amendment’s ban on excessive bail means just about nothing. That contention is that Congress has power, despite the Amendment, to determine “whether or not bail may be granted, or must be granted, and the Constitution then forbids the exaction of excessive bail . . . .” Under this contention, the Eighth Amendment is a limitation upon judges only, for while a judge cannot constitutionally fix excessive bail, Congress can direct that people be held in jail without any right to bail at all. Stated still another way, the Amendment does no more than protect a right to bail which Congress can grant and which Congress can take away. The Amendment is thus reduced below the level of a pious admonition. Maybe the literal language of the framers lends itself to this weird, devitalizing interpretation when scrutinized with a hostile eye. But at least until recently, it has been the judicial practice to give a broad, liberal interpretation to those provisions of the Bill of Rights obviously designed to protect the individual from governmental oppression. I would follow that practice here. The Court refuses to do so because (1) the English Bill of Rights “has never been thought to accord a right to bail in 557*557 all cases . . .” and (2) “in criminal cases bail is not compulsory where the punishment may be death.” As to (1): The Eighth Amendment is in the American Bill of Rights of 1789, not the English Bill of Rights of 1689. And it is well known that our Bill of Rights was written and adopted to guarantee Americans greater freedom than had been enjoyed by their ancestors who had been driven from Europe by persecution. See Bridges v. California, 314 U. S. 252, 264-265. As to (2): It is true bail has frequently been denied in this country “when the punishment may be death.” I fail to see where the Court’s analogy between deportation and the death penalty advances its argument unless it is also analogizing the offense of indoctrinating talk to the crime of first degree murder.
Another governmental contention is this: “The bail provisions of the Eighth Amendment and of the statutes relating thereto have always been considered as applicable only to criminal proceedings. Since deportation proceedings are not criminal in character, the Eighth Amendment has no application.” I reject the contention that this constitutional right to bail can be denied a man in jail by the simple device of providing a “not criminal” label for the techniques used to incarcerate. Imprisonment awaiting determination of whether that imprisonment is justifiable has precisely the same evil consequences to an individual whatever legalistic label is used to describe his plight. Prior to this Amendment’s adoption, history had been filled with instances where individuals had been imprisoned and held for want of bail on charges that could not be substantiated. Official malice had too frequently been the cause of imprisonment. The plain purpose of our bail Amendment was to make it impossible for any agency of Government, even the Congress, to authorize keeping people imprisoned a moment longer than was necessary to assure their attendance to answer whatever 558*558 legal burden or obligation might thereafter be validly imposed upon them. In earlier days of this country there were fond hopes that the bail provision was unnecessary, that no branch of our Government would ever want to deprive any person of bail. On this subject Mr. Justice Story said, “The provision would seem to be wholly unnecessary in a free government, since it is scarcely possible that any department of such a government should authorize or justify such atrocious conduct.” Story on Constitutional Law, 5th ed., Vol. 2, p. 650. Perhaps the word “atrocious” is too strong. I can only say that I regret, deeply regret, that the Court now adds the right to bail to the list of other Bill of Rights guarantees that have recently been weakened to expand governmental powers at the expense of individual freedom.
If the Attorney General, after the Internal Security Act, had made a general ruling that thereafter he would not allow bail to any alien against whom deportation proceedings were started and who was then a member of the Communist Party—an undiscriminating, unindividualized class determination—it would disregard the clear direction of Congress for this Court not to hold that the Attorney General had exceeded the limits of his discretion. It would wilfully disregard the adjudications on bail in deportation cases which preceded the Act and the unambiguous legislative history of the law based upon this judicial history. Congress unequivocally chose not to give nonreviewable discretionary power to the Attorney General to deny bail. In substance though not formally he has made such a general ruling. The records before us disclose that since the Internal Security Act the Attorney 559*559 General has in fact followed the general practice of denying bail to all active Communists. Such blanket exercise of the power granted him by the Act calls for review and cannot stand.
The controlling questions in this case are: What standards of discretion does the Internal Security Act of 1950[1] impose upon the Attorney General in granting or denying bail to persons arrested for deportation proceedings; and has the Attorney General here observed those standards? The Government concedes that Congress made reviewable the discretion of the Attorney General on the bail question. This subjection of the Attorney General’s action to judicial scrutiny is not to be formally or lightly exercised. The bill which ultimately became § 23 of the Internal Security Act was initially passed by the House with a provision making absolute and unreviewable the Attorney General’s action.[2] The bill as enacted, however, omitted the finality clause; the Attorney General’s authority was thus defined: “Pending final determination of the deportability of any alien . . . [he] may, in the discretion of the Attorney General (1) be continued in custody; or (2) be released under bond in the amount of not less than $500, with security approved by the Attorney General; or 560*560 (3) be released on conditional parole.”[3] Before the passage of the Act Congress had before it conflicting views of Courts of Appeals: according to Prentis v. Manoogian, 16 F. 2d 422 (C. A. 6th Cir.), bail was a matter of the alien’s right; the Second Circuit ruled that it was a matter within the Attorney General’s discretion subject to judicial review. United States ex rel. Potash v. District Director, 169 F. 2d 747 (C. A. 2d Cir.).[4] Congress chose the latter view. It deserves emphasis that it was discretion that was given the Attorney General, not power to decide arbitrarily.[5]
561*561 In granting the Attorney General discretion subject to judicial review, Congress legislated against a historical background which gives meaning to bail provisions. Only the other day this Court restated the concept of bail traditional in American thought and reflected in the Constitution:
562*562 This historical meaning of “bail,” familiar even to laymen, must infuse our interpretation of the words of a Congress of whom, in fact, a majority were lawyers. When Congress provided for bail, within the Attorney General’s discretion, for persons arrested for deportation proceedings, it was extending to resident aliens still lawfully in our midst the same privileges that are granted as a matter of course to dangerous criminals. The factors relevant to the exercise of discretion are factors that pertain to each individual as an individual. “Discretion is only to be respected when it is conscious of the traditions which surround it and of the limits which an informed conscience sets to its exercise.”[6]
If these aliens, instead of awaiting deportation proceedings, were held for trial under a Smith Act indictment, they could not be denied bail merely because of the indictment. Stack v. Boyle, supra. Membership in the Communist Party—the charge which is the foundation for the deportation proceedings—is surely not as great a danger as a leading share in a conspiracy to advocate the overthrow of the Government by force, which was the essence of the indictment in Dennis v. United States, 341 U. S. 494. And the opportunity for “the unhampered preparation of a defense” is quite as important to the alien arrested for deportation proceedings as it is to the Smith Act defendant. We would hesitate to impute to Congress, in the absence of some more explicit command, an intent to make bail more readily available to those held on a serious criminal charge than to those awaiting proceedings to determine the question of deportability. Congress made no such distinction. Instead, it cast the Attorney General’s authority in terms descriptive of the 563*563 customary power of commissioners or district judges in admitting to bail.
It would be unfair to Congress to deny that it followed the traditional concept of bail by making “the danger to the public safety of his presence within the community” a criterion for bailability. No less must it be presumed that Congress required that each criterion should be applied in the traditional manner, that is, by individualized application to each alien. In each case, the alien’s anticipated personal conduct—and that alone— 564*564 must be considered. Also, how expeditiously each deportation proceeding can be concluded, and therefore how long the bail in each case need be in effect, are relevant considerations.
In these cases the Attorney General has not exercised his discretion by applying the standards required of him. He evidently thought himself under compulsion of law and made an abstract, class determination, not an individualized judgment. When the five aliens were arrested originally (one as late as June, 1950), all were released on bail, ranging from $5,000 for one to $1,000 for another; three were released on $2,000 bail. Much is made of the fact that the enactment of the Internal Security Act on 565*565 September 22, 1950, intervened between the original grant of bail and the subsequent rearrest and detention of the aliens. The only change in that Act relevant to these deportation proceedings was the provision making membership in the Communist Party specifically a basis for deportation.[9] New warrants charging membership in the Communist Party at some time after entry were served on the rearrested aliens in Los Angeles, though not on Zydok in Detroit. The immigration authorities were by the Act relieved of proving—in order to make a prima facie case— that the Communist Party is an “organization . . . that believes in, advises, advocates, or teaches . . . the overthrow by force or violence of the Government.”[10] But in the circumstances of today a legislative definition of the Communist Party as an organization advocating violent overthrow of government made little difference in the required proof.[11] At any rate, a complete answer is that nowhere—either in his returns to the writs of habeas corpus or elsewhere—has the Attorney General made any assertion that the Internal Security Act eased the proof of deportability, indicating by his silence that such a factor did not influence his judgment.[12] The returns in the Los Angeles cases supported the denial of bail solely by the statement, “said facts cause the said Acting Commissioner 566*566 to believe that if the said petitioner[s] were enlarged on bail [they] would engage in activities which would be prejudicial to the public interest, and would endanger the welfare and safety of the United States.” The return in Zydok’s case stated no reasons for the Attorney General’s decision. The only evidence at the hearings was also directed solely to the Communist activities of the aliens.
567*567 There is also no evidence on the activities of the other four aliens that is more recent than 1949—a year before the issuance of the relevant warrants for deportation and the denials of bail here under review—with the exception of a newspaper article by Carlson published in late 1950. In fact, in the case of Carlisle and Stevenson the Government had no evidence of activity or membership in the Communist Party more recent than the 1930’s. Since all these aliens when previously arrested were released on bail, we cannot escape the conclusion that the Attorney General after the enactment of the Internal Security Act did not deny bail from an individualized estimate of “the danger to the public safety of [each person’s] presence within the community.”[14]
568*568 We are confirmed in this conclusion by the Attorney General’s practice. For we are advised by the Solicitor General that it has been the Government’s policy since the Internal Security Act to terminate bail for all aliens awaiting deportation proceedings whom it deems to be present active Communists, barring only those for whom special circumstances of physical condition or family situation compel an exception. The ordinary consideration of availability to respond to the final judgment of the courts have apparently been ruled out by the Attorney General since the enactment of the Internal Security Act. All those whom the Government believes to be active Communists are considered unbailable without individualized consideration of risk from their continued freedom. It must therefore be inferred that the Attorney General acted on the assumption that, because he was convinced that the aliens here were present Communist Party members, they were not bailable. These persons should have the benefit of an exercise of discretion by the Attorney General, freed from any conception that Congress had made them in effect unbailable. We think that the California case should be returned to the District Court for discharge of the four persons detained unless the Attorney General within a reasonable time makes a new determination on the bail question using the standards here outlined. And if Zydok is rearrested under a new warrant, the Attorney General will have a fresh opportunity to exercise his discretion in setting bail.
My reasons for dissent strike deeper than the bail provisions of the Eighth Amendment. According to the warrants of arrest issued on October 31, 1950, the petitioners in No. 35 are being detained for deportation because they were formerly members of the Communist Party of the United States. Zydok, the respondent in 569*569 No. 136, was arrested for present Communist Party membership, but no charge has been made that he has been guilty of any seditious conduct or that he has committed any overt act endangering our national security. If the Constitution does not permit expulsion of these aliens for their past actions or present expressions unaccompanied by conduct—and I do not think it does[*]—then they are illegally detained and should be set free, making the issue of bail meaningless.