Source: http://supreme.nolo.com/us/350/551/case.html
Timestamp: 2020-03-30 11:06:51
Document Index: 710155867

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 903', '§ 903', '§ 903', '§ 903', '§ 903', '§ 903', '§ 903']

SLOCHOWER V. BOARD OF EDUCATION, 350 U. S. 551 - Volume 350 - 1956 - Full Text - US Supreme Court Center - USSC Cases - Nolo
US Supreme Court Center > Volume 350 > SLOCHOWER V. BOARD OF EDUCATION, 350 U. S. 551 (1956) > Full Text
Appellant Slochower invoked the privilege against self-incrimination
The Supreme Court of New York, County of Kings, concluded that appellant's behavior fell within the scope of § 903, and upheld its application here. 202 Misc. 915, 118 N.Y.S.2d 487. The Appellate Division, 282 App.Div. 718, 122 N.Y.S.2d 286, reported sub nom. Shlakman v. Board of Higher Education of City of New York, and the Court of Appeals, reported
The problem of balancing the State's interest in the loyalty of those in its service with the traditional safeguards of individual rights is a continuing one. To state that a person does not have a constitutional right to government employment is only to say that he must comply with reasonable, lawful, and nondiscriminatory terms laid down by the proper authorities. Adler v. Board of Education, 342 U. S. 485, upheld the New York Feinberg Law which authorized the public school authorities to
Here, the Board, in support of its position, contends that only two possible inferences flow from appellant's claim
At the outset, we must condemn the practice of imputing a sinister meaning to the exercise of a person's constitutional right under the Fifth Amendment. The right of an accused person to refuse to testify, which had been in England merely a rule of evidence, was so important to our forefathers that they raised it to the dignity of a constitutional enactment, and it has been recognized as "one of the most valuable prerogatives of the citizen." Brown v. Walker, 161 U. S. 591, 161 U. S. 610. We have reaffirmed our faith in this principle recently in Quinn v. United States, 349 U. S. 155. In Ullmann v. United States, 350 U. S. 422, we scored the assumption that those who claim this privilege are either criminals or perjurers. The privilege against self-incrimination would be reduced to a hollow mockery if its exercise could be taken as equivalent either to a confession of guilt or a conclusive presumption of perjury. As we pointed out in Ullmann, a witness may have a reasonable fear of prosecution and yet be innocent of any wrongdoing. The privilege serves to protect the innocent who otherwise might
Without attacking Professor Slochower's qualification for his position in any manner, and apparently with full knowledge of the testimony he had given some 12 years
In reliance upon the Due Process Clause of our Constitution, the Court strikes deep into the authority of New York to protect its local governmental institutions from influences of officials whose conduct does not meet
The sole reliance of the Court for reversal of the New York Court of Appeals is that § 903, as here applied, violates the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution. The Court of Appeals amended its remittitur to show that it held federal due process was not violated. 307 N.Y. 806, 121 N.E.2d 629. In view of the conclusions of the Court of Appeals, we need deal only with that problem. The Court of Appeals has exclusive power to determine the reach of its own statute.
The Court finds it a denial of due process to discharge an employee merely because he relied upon the Fifth Amendment plea of self-incrimination to avoid answering questions which he would be otherwise required to answer. We assert the contrary -- the city does have reasonable ground to require its employees either to give evidence regarding facts of official conduct within their knowledge or to give up the positions they hold. Petitioners never contended that error or inadvertence led them to refuse to answer. Their contention is set out in the margin below. [Footnote 2/2] Discharges under § 903 do not depend upon any conclusion as to the guilt of the employee of some crime that might be disclosed by his testimony or as to his guilt of perjury, if really there was no prosecution to fear. We disagree with the Court's assumption that § 903, as a practical matter, takes the questions asked as confessed. Cities, like other employers, may reasonably conclude that a refusal to furnish appropriate information is enough to justify discharge. Legally authorized bodies have a right to demand that citizens furnish facts pertinent to official inquiries. The duty to respond may be refused for personal protection against prosecution only, but such avoidance of public duty to furnish information can properly
Consideration of the meaning of "due process" under the Fourteenth Amendment supports our position that § 903 of the City Charter does not violate that concept. For this Court to hold that state action in the field of its unchallenged powers violates the due process of the Federal Constitution requires far more than mere disagreement with the legal conclusions of state courts. To require, as the Court does, that New York stay its hand in discharging a teacher whom the city deems unworthy to occupy a chair in its Brooklyn College demands that this Court say, if it follows our prior cases, that the action of the Board in declaring Professor Slochower's position
A great American university has declared that members of its faculty who invoked the Fifth Amendment before committees of Congress were guilty of "misconduct,"
The New York rule is not the patently arbitrary and discriminatory statute of Wieman v. Updegraff, 344 U. S. 183. There, "[a] state servant may have joined a proscribed organization unaware of its activities and purposes." 344 U.S. at 344 U. S. 190. This Court unanimously condemned as arbitrary the requirement of an oath that covered both innocent and knowing membership, without distinction. A different situation exists here. Section 903 was included
Since § 903 is inoperative if even incriminating answers are given, it is apparent that it is the exercise of the privilege itself which is the basis for the discharge, quite apart from any inference of guilt. Thus, the Court of Appeals could say that "[t]he assertion of the privilege against self incrimination is equivalent to a resignation." [Footnote 3/2] It is also clear that the Board of Education's discharge of Dr. Slochower was on this same
It makes no difference that the question which Dr. Slochower refused to answer was put to him by a federal, rather than a state, body. The authority of the subcommittee to ask the question is not controverted. While, as an original matter, I would be doubtful whether § 903 was intended to apply to federal investigations, the