Source: http://supreme.nolo.com/us/469/70/case.html
Timestamp: 2019-12-13 04:39:44
Document Index: 413705101

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 2114', '§ 2114', '§ 2114', '§ 2114', '§ 2114', '§ 2112', '§ 2114', '§ 20', '§ 2114', '§ 2114']

GARCIA V. UNITED STATES, 469 U. S. 70 - Volume 469 - 1984 - Full Text - US Supreme Court Center - USSC Cases - Nolo
US Supreme Court Center > Volume 469 > GARCIA V. UNITED STATES, 469 U. S. 70 (1984) > Full Text
Both petitioners were sentenced to the 25-year prison term mandated by § 2114 when the assault puts the custodian's life in jeopardy by use of a dangerous weapon. [Footnote 2] On appeal the Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the judgments of conviction. The only issue before us on certiorari is whether the language "any money, or other property of the
""the rule of ejusdem generis, while firmly established, is only an instrumentality for ascertaining the correct meaning of words when there is uncertainty.'""
Ibid., quoting United States v. Powell, 423 U. S. 87, 423 U. S. 91 (1975), in turn quoting 297 U. S. United States,
297 U. S. 124, 297 U. S. 128 (1936). We are not persuaded that petitioners' analysis of the statutory language creates any ambiguity in the plain meaning of the words, and even if it did we do not think that the particular language here lends itself to the application of the ejusdem generis rule. We have previously noted that the terms in question are made separate and distinct from one another by Congress' use of the disjunctive; in addition, the term "mail matter" is no more specific a term -- and is probably less specific -- than "money."
States v. Hanahan, 442 F.2d 649 (CA7 1971), vacated and remanded, 414 U.S. 807 (1973). In that case we were faced with the identical issue presented here, but we vacated and remanded in light of the Solicitor General's concession that § 2114 only applied to postal crimes. [Footnote 4] The Solicitor General now states that his concession in Hanahan was unwarranted. As we noted in NLRB v. Iron Workers, 434 U. S. 335, 434 U. S. 351 (1978), a governmental agency "is not disqualified from changing its mind" concerning the construction of a statute. See also Barrett v. United States, 423 U. S. 212, 423 U. S. 222 (1976). Moreover, private agreements between litigants, especially those disowned, cannot relieve this Court of performance of its judicial function. It is our responsibility to interpret the intent of Congress in enacting § 2114, irrespective of petitioners' or respondent's prior or present views. "[T]he proper administration of the criminal law cannot be left merely to the stipulation of [the] parties." Young v. United States, 315 U. S. 257, 315 U. S. 259 (1942). We agree that the Solicitor General's prior concession was ill-advised, but it does not control this case.
Petitioners seek to clip § 2114 despite its plain terms, but "[t]he short answer is that Congress did not write the statute that way." Russello, 464 U.S. at 464 U. S. 23. [Footnote 5] Instead, Congress
The Second Congress, recognizing the importance of the delivery of the mails, enacted the earliest predecessor to § 2114 in 1792. That enactment, entitled "An Act to establish the Post-Office and Post Roads within the United States," [Footnote 2/1] stated in part that death was the penalty for any
person who robbed "any carrier of the mail of the United States." [Footnote 2/2] The penalty for robbery of a carrier of the mail remained the same when the Third Congress passed the Act of May 8, 1794. [Footnote 2/3] Almost three years later, Congress made aiding and abetting the robbery of a mail carrier an offense also subject to a penalty of death. [Footnote 2/4]
Repeatedly in subsequent years Congress enacted special legislation dealing with mail-robbery offenses. Such statutes were enacted in 1799, [Footnote 2/5] 1810, [Footnote 2/6] 1825, [Footnote 2/7] 1872, [Footnote 2/8] and
1909. [Footnote 2/9] In the 1909 statute, Congress established a mandatory minimum sentence of incarceration of 25 years for attempted robbery if the mail carrier was wounded or had his life put in danger. As it had done consistently for over a century, Congress thus ensured that the law would provide special protection for a person within the postal setting by making it clear that a crime upon such a person was an unusually serious matter, not only because it was a federal offense, but also because of the severity of the mandated penalty. [Footnote 2/10]
A review of the circumstances leading to the 1935 amendment persuades me that Congress merely intended to broaden the protection of postal workers. In 1934 two bills containing the amendatory language that was enacted in the following year were introduced in the House of Representatives and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. [Footnote 2/11] Neither of those bills was reported out of that Committee which, of course, is the Committee that would normally process a significant change in the general coverage of the Criminal Code. In 1935, the highest postal official, the Postmaster General, wrote a letter to Representative James M. Mead, Chairman of the House Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads, requesting an amendment to cover assaults
on custodians of Government funds. [Footnote 2/12] In both the House and the Senate it was the Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads that processed the requested legislation. See H.R.Rep. No. 582, 74th Cong., 1st Sess. (1935); S.Rep. No. 1440, 74th Cong., 1st Sess. (1935).
the pending bill is to extend the protection of the present law to property of the United States in the custody of its postal officials, the same as it now extends that protection to mail matter in the custody of its postal officials. [Footnote 2/13]"
Even after Congress enacted the 1935 amendment, thus structuring the statute to read [Footnote 2/14] in much the same form as it
exists today, the statute remained in the chapter dealing with crimes against the Postal Service until the general revision of the Judicial Code in 1948. No one contends that the 1948 revision changed the meaning of the statute. [Footnote 2/15]
First is the relationship between this statute and other parts of the Criminal Code. The general statute proscribing thefts of Government property, 18 U.S.C. § 2112, carries a lesser penalty even if violence accompanies the theft. [Footnote 2/18] The more severe penalty in § 2114 is only explicable if we assume that Congress wanted to provide a special deterrent to crimes against an identifiable class of federal employees. Moreover, that special deterrent is consistent with the congressional decision in 1868 that mail carriers should wear special uniforms that the Postmaster General prescribed. See Act of July 27, 1868, ch. 246, § 20, 15 Stat.197. Robbery of a uniformed postal worker fits squarely into the rationale for § 2114. The assault in this case, however, was upon an undercover agent not known to have any connection with
the Federal Government. This type of robbery is not appropriately prosecuted under § 2114. [Footnote 2/19]
It is Congress, rather than the Executive, that must define the dimensions of the federal law enforcement program. Law enforcement remains, and should remain, the primary responsibility of the several States. Every increase in the power of the federal prosecutor moves us a step closer to a national police force with its attendant threats to individual liberty. For that reason, I believe we have a special obligation to make sure that Congress intended to authorize a novel assertion of federal criminal jurisdiction. Cf. Bell v. United States, 462 U. S. 356, 462 U. S. 363 (1983) (STEVENS, J., dissenting); McElroy v. United States, 455 U. S. 642, 455 U. S. 675 (1982) (STEVENS, J., dissenting); United States v. Altobella, 442