Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/395/6/
Timestamp: 2020-07-09 02:58:27
Document Index: 707213188

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 176', '§ 176', '§ 4741', '§ 4744', '§ 4411', '§ 6107', '§ 4401', '§ 5851', '§ 4741', '§ 4753', '§ 4742', '§ 152', '§ 4753', '§ 152', '§ 4744', '§ 4741', '§ 4744', '§ 4751', '§ 4741', '§ 152', '§ 4751', '§ 4742', '§ 152', '§ 4742', '§ 4741', '§ 4741', '§ 4741', '§ 4741', '§ 4701', '§ 5801', '§ 4705', '§ 4773', '§ 4744', '§ 4744', '§ 4744', '§ 176', '§ 5601', '§ 176', '§ 176', '§ 176', '§ 176', '§ 176']

Leary v. United States :: 395 U.S. 6 (1969) :: Justia US Supreme Court Center
Justia › US Law › US Case Law › US Supreme Court › Volume 395 › Leary v. United States
Petitioner was indicted and tried before a jury in the Federal District Court for the Southern District of Texas, on three counts. First, it was alleged that he had knowingly smuggled marihuana into the United States, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 176a. [Footnote 1] Second, it was charged
that he had knowingly transported and facilitated the transportation and concealment of marihuana which had been illegally imported or brought into the United States, with knowledge that it had been illegally imported or brought in, all again in violation of § 176a. [Footnote 2] Third, it was alleged that petitioner was a transferee of marihuana, and had knowingly transported, concealed, and facilitated the transportation and concealment of marihuana without having paid the transfer tax imposed by the Marihuana Tax Act, 26 U.S.C. § 4741 et seq., thereby violating 26 U.S.C. § 4744(a)(2). [Footnote 3]
After both sides had presented their evidence and the defense had moved for a judgment of acquittal, the District Court dismissed the first or smuggling count. [Footnote 4] The jury found petitioner guilty on the other two counts. He was tentatively sentenced to the maximum punishment, pending completion of a study and recommendations to be used by the District Court in fixing his final sentence. [Footnote 5] On appeal, the Court of Appeals for the
Page 395 U. S. 12
by 26 U.S.C. §§ 4411-4412. We noted that wagering was a crime in almost every State, and that 26 U.S.C. § 6107 required that lists of wagering taxpayers be furnished to state and local prosecutors on demand. We concluded that compliance with the statute would have subjected petitioner to a "real and appreciable'" [Footnote 6] risk of self-incrimination. We further recognized that the occupational tax was not imposed in "`an essentially noncriminal and regulatory area . . . ,'" 390 U.S. at 390 U. S. 57, [Footnote 7] but was "directed to a `selective group inherently suspect of criminal activities.'" [Footnote 8] We found that it would be inappropriate to impose restrictions on use of the information collected under the statute -- a course urged by the Government as a means of removing the impact of the statute upon the privilege against self-incrimination -- because of the evident congressional purpose to provide aid to prosecutors. We noted that, unlike the petitioner in Shapiro v. United States, 335 U. S. 1 (1948), Marchetti was not required to supply information which had a "public aspect" or was contained in records of the kind he customarily kept.
In Grosso, we held that the same considerations required that a claim of the privilege be a defense to prosecution under 26 U.S.C. § 4401, which imposes an excise tax on proceeds from wagering. And in Haynes, we held for the same reasons that assertion of the Fifth Amendment privilege provided a defense to prosecution for possession of an unregistered weapon under the National Firearms Act, 26 U.S.C. § 5851, despite the fact that, in "uncommon" instances, registration under the statute would not be incriminating. See 390 U.S. at 390 U. S. 96-97, 390 U. S. 99.
The first of the transfer tax provisions, 26 U.S.C. § 4741, imposes a tax "upon all transfers of marihuana which are required by section 4742 to be carried out in pursuance of written order forms." Section 4741 further provides that, on transfers to persons registered under § 4753, the tax is $1 per ounce, while, on transfers to persons not so registered, the tax is $100 per ounce. The tax is required to be paid by the transferee "at the time of securing each order form." [Footnote 9] With certain exceptions not here relevant, [Footnote 10] § 4742 makes it unlawful for any
person, "whether or not required to pay a special tax and register under sections 4751 to 4753," to transfer marihuana except pursuant to a written order form to be obtained by the transferee. A regulation, 26 CFR § 152.69, provides that the order form must show the name and address of the transferor and transferee, their § 4753 registration numbers, if they are registered, and the quantity of marihuana transferred. Another regulation, 26 CFR § 152.66, requires the transferee to submit an application containing these data in order to obtain the form. Section 4742(d) of the Act requires the Internal Revenue Service to "preserve" in its records a duplicate copy of each order form which it issues.
Finally, 26 U.S.C. § 4744(a) makes it unlawful for a transferee required to pay the § 4741(a) transfer tax either to acquire marihuana without having paid the tax or to transport, conceal, or facilitate the transportation or concealment of, any marihuana so acquired. [Footnote 12] Petitioner
was convicted under § 4744(a). He conceded at trial that he had not obtained an order form or paid the transfer tax.
true that almost all States, including New York and Texas, had exceptions making lawful, under specified conditions, possession of marihuana by: (1) state-licensed manufacturers and wholesalers; (2) apothecaries; (3) researchers; (4) physicians, dentists, veterinarians, and certain other medical personnel; (5) agents or employees of the foregoing persons or common carriers; (6) persons for whom the drug had been prescribed or to whom it had been given by an authorized medical person, and (7) certain public officials. [Footnote 16] However, individuals in the first four of these classes are among those compelled to register and pay the occupational tax under §§ 4751-4753; [Footnote 17] in consequence of having registered, they are required to pay only a $1 per ounce transfer tax under § 4741(a)(1). It is extremely unlikely that such persons will remain unregistered, for failure to register renders them liable not only to an additional $99 per ounce transfer tax, but
The Government, however, vigorously contends that, when the Act is considered together with the accompanying regulations, and in light of existing administrative practice, its incriminatory aspect will be seen to vanish or shrink to less than constitutional proportions. The Government points first to regulations, 26 CFR § § 152.22, 152.23, added in 1964, which provide that every applicant for registration under §§ 4751-4753
must show that he is legally qualified to deal in marihuana according to the laws of the jurisdiction in which he is operating, and that the district director shall not permit an applicant to register until the director is satisfied that this is true. The Government then cites two other regulations, relating to applications for order forms under § 4742. The first, 26 CFR § 152.67, provides that such applications "[g]enerally . . . shall be signed by the same person or persons signing the application for registration," but, when this is impracticable,
We begin with the words of the statute. Section 4741(a), when read in conjunction with § 4742, imposes a tax upon every transfer of marihuana, with a few exceptions not here relevant. [Footnote 22] Section 4741(a)(1) states that the tax on registrants shall be $1 per ounce and § 4741(a)(2) that the tax on transfers to nonregistrants shall be $100 per ounce. Section 4741(b) states that "[s]uch tax shall be paid by the transferee at the time of securing each order form and shall be in addition to the price of such form." (Emphasis added.) Since § 4741(b) makes no distinction between the § 4741(a)(1) tax on transfers to registrants and the § 4741(a)(2) tax
He stated that, in form the bill was a "synthesis" of the Harrison Narcotics Act, now 26 U.S.C. § 4701 et seq., and the National Firearms Act, now 26 U.S.C. § 5801 et seq. [Footnote 26] Both of these statutes compelled dealers in the respective goods to register and pay a special tax. Both prohibited transfer except in pursuance of a written form and imposed a transfer tax. However, the transfer provisions differed in that the Narcotics Act provided that no one except a registrant could legally obtain an order form, see 26 U.S.C. § 4705(g), while the Firearms Act merely imposed
give to the transfer provisions is contrary to the manifest congressional intent that transfers to nonregistrants be taxed, not forbidden. Insofar as the regulations which require comparison of signatures necessarily compel the result urged by the Government, they must be regarded as contrary to the statute, and hence beyond the scope of the regulation-making authority which was delegated by Congress. [Footnote 38] It is true that these regulations were promulgated in 1937, and that Congress reenacted the entire Act in 1954, while they were in effect. However, the scanty legislative history accompanying that reenactment gives no hint that Congress knew of these particular regulations, much less of the indirect impact which the Government now ascribes to them. [Footnote 39] As we recently noted in Massachusetts Trustees v. United States, 377 U. S. 235, 377 U. S. 241, 377 U. S. 242 (1964), congressional reenactment of a statute, even without any apparent knowledge of a particular regulation, can "strengthen
to some extent" the regulation's claim to validity, but reenactment cannot save a regulation which "contradict[s] the requirements" of the statute itself. When a regulation conflicts with the statute, the fact of subsequent reenactment "is immaterial, for Congress could not add to or expand [the] statute by impliedly approving the regulation." Commissioner v. Acker, 361 U. S. 87, 361 U. S. 93 (1959). [Footnote 40]
Nor are we persuaded by the Government's argument that its construction has been followed by the Internal Revenue Service and the Bureau of Narcotics ever since the passage of the Act, and that this "longstanding" interpretation by the agencies charged with administering the Act should be controlling. We have often recognized that, as a general matter, a longstanding, contemporaneous construction of a statute by the administering agencies is "entitled to great weight," FTC v. Mandel Bros., 359 U. S. 385, 359 U. S. 391 (1959), and will be "show[n] great deference," Udall v. Tallman, 380 U. S. 1, 380 U. S. 16 (1965). [Footnote 41] However, in this instance, the Government admits that, until our decisions last Term in Marchetti, Grosso, and Haynes, the alleged interpretation had been made known only through the regulations themselves, since there apparently had never been an application by a nonregistrant to prepay the transfer tax. Moreover, in its brief in this Court in United States v. Sanchez, 340 U. S. 42 (1950), the United States plainly took the position that the Act imposed only a tax, and not a prohibition on transfers to nonregistrants, [Footnote 42] implying that, at that time, the alleged administrative construction was unknown even to those charged with representing the
text and legislative history of the Marihuana Tax Act plainly disclose a similar congressional purpose. As has been noted, 26 U.S.C. § 4773 requires that copies of order forms be kept available for inspection by state and local officials, and that copies be furnished to such officials on request. The House and Senate reports both state that one objective of the Act was "the development of an adequate means of publicizing dealings in marihuana in order to tax and control the traffic effectively." [Footnote 46] In short, we think the conclusion inescapable that the statute was aimed at bringing to light transgressions of the marihuana laws. Hence, as in last Term's cases, we decline to impose use restrictions, and are obliged to conclude that a timely and proper assertion of the privilege should have provided a complete defense to prosecution under § 4744(a)(2).
There remain the further questions whether this petitioner's claim of the privilege was timely, and whether it was waived. As for timeliness, petitioner did not assert the privilege as a defense to the § 4744(a) count until his motion for a new trial. The Court of Appeals evidently regarded the claim as timely, for it rejected it on the merits both in its original opinion and in its denial of rehearing. See 383 F.2d at 870; 392 F.2d at 221-222. The Government does not contend that the claim of the privilege was untimely. Petitioner's trial occurred before our decisions in Marchetti, Grosso, and Haynes, and the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit had recently rejected an identical self-incrimination claim. See Haynes v. United States, 339 F.2d 30 (1964). Although it would have been preferable for petitioner to have asserted the privilege at trial, we hold that, in the circumstances of this case, his failure to raise
in part, by his conviction that the Act imposed an illegal tax upon religion or upon the "pursuit of knowledge" [Footnote 47] and by his belief that, in consequence of the system of regulations and administrative practice described above, he would not be permitted to pay the tax. [Footnote 48] However, other parts of petitioner's testimony clearly indicate that he also was influenced by an apprehension that, by trying to pay the tax, he might incriminate himself. [Footnote 49] We cannot say that petitioner's testimony, taken as a whole, amounted to a waiver of the privilege. We conclude that petitioner's invocation of the privilege was proper, and that it should have provided a full defense to the third count of the indictment. Accordingly, we reverse petitioner's conviction under 26 U.S.C. § 4744(a)(2).
§ 176a on either of two alternative theories. Under the first, or "South-North" theory, a conviction could have been based solely upon petitioner's own testimony that the marihuana had been brought back from Mexico into the United States and that, with knowledge of that fact, petitioner had continued to transport it. Under the second, or "North-South" theory, the conviction would have depended partly upon petitioner's testimony that he had transported the marihuana from New York to Texas and partly upon the challenged presumption. [Footnote 52]
intrastate acquisition and interstate shipment prior to the beginning of state regulation. See id. at 468. [Footnote 62]
The presumption under attack in United States v. Romano, supra, was identical to that, in Giainey except that it authorized the jury to infer from the defendant's presence at an illegal still that he had possession, custody, or control of the still. See 26 U.S.C. §§ 5601(a)(1),
5601(b)(1). We held this presumption invalid. While stating that the result in Gainey was entirely justified because
The Government contends that Yee Hem requires us to read the § 176a presumption as intended to put every marihuana smoker on notice that he must be prepared to show that any marihuana in his possession was
not illegally imported, and that, since the possessor is the person most likely to know the marihuana's origin, it is not unfair to require him to adduce evidence on that point. However, we consider that this approach, which closely resembles the test of comparative convenience in the production of evidence, [Footnote 91] was implicitly abandoned in Tot v. United States, 319 U. S. 463 (1943). As was noted previously, the Tot Court confronted a presumption which allowed a jury to infer from possession of a firearm that it was received in interstate commerce. Despite evidence that most States prohibited unregistered and unrecorded acquisition of firearms, the Court did not read the statute as notifying possessors that they must be prepared to show that they received their weapons in intrastate transactions, as Yee Hem would seem to dictate. Instead, while recognizing that "the defendants . . . knew better than anyone else whether they acquired the firearms or ammunition in interstate commerce," 319 U.S. at 319 U. S. 469, the Court held that, because of the danger of overreaching it was incumbent upon the prosecution to demonstrate that the inference was permissible before the burden of coming forward could be placed upon the defendant. This was a matter which the Yee Hem Court either thought it unnecessary to consider or assumed when it described the inference as "natural." [Footnote 92]
part of the § 176a presumption is constitutional under the standard established in Tot and adhered to in Gainey and Romano -- that is, whether it can be said with substantial assurance that one in possession of marihuana is more likely than not to know that his marihuana was illegally imported.
We treat these five possibilities seriatim, in light of the available materials, beginning in each instance with the legislative record. We note at the outset that, although we have been able to discover a good deal of relevant secondary evidence, we have found none of the best kind possible -- testimony of marihuana users about their own beliefs as to origin, or studies based upon interviews in which users were asked about this matter. The committee hearings which preceded passage of § 176a included testimony by many marihuana smokers, but none was ever asked whether he knew the origin of the marihuana he smoked. It should also be kept in mind that the great preponderance of marihuana smokers are "occasional", rather than "regular" users of the drug, [Footnote 94]
Since we find that the § 176a presumption is unconstitutional under this standard, we need not reach the question whether a criminal presumption which passes muster when so judged must also satisfy the criminal "reasonable doubt" standard if proof of the crime charged or an essential element thereof depends upon its use. Cf. United States v. Adams, 293 F. Supp. 776, 783-784 (1968). See also United States v. Romano, supra, at 382 U. S. 140-144; Comment, The Constitutionality of Statutory Criminal Presumptions, 34 U.Chi.L.Rev. 141 (1966).
See, e.g., Bureau of Narcotics, Report on the Traffic in Opium and Other Dangerous Drugs 36 (1963); id. at 30 (1964); Mandel, Myths and Realities of Marihuana Pushing, in J. Simmons (ed.), Marihuana: Myths and Realities 58-110 (1967); President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice, Report: The Challenge of Crime in a Free Society 213 (1967); Simmons (ed.), supra, at 233; United States Government, Report on the Working of the International Treaties on Narcotic Drugs 17 (1966); id. at 24-25 (1967). Contra, see Transcript of Pretrial Hearing, July 15, 1968, United States v. Adams, 293 F. Supp. 776 (1968), at 67, 76 (testimony of Dr. Richard Schultes, Director of Harvard Botanic Museum) (hereafter 1 Transcript). See also J. Rosevear, Pot: A Handbook of Marihuana 35, 119-120 (1967)
See Bureau of Narcotics, Reports on the Traffic in Opium and Other Dangerous Drugs 1956-1967; Transcript of Pretrial Hearing, July 24, 1968, United States v. Adams, 293 F. Supp. 776 (1968), at 37-45 (hereafter 2 Transcript); United States Government, Report on the Working of the International Treaties on Narcotic Drugs 17 (1966); id. at 24-25 (1967). But cf. Senate Hearings 3488-3490.
A careful examination of the lower court decisions regarding the presumption's constitutionality does not suggest the contrary. All courts of appeals which have ruled on the question have sustained the presumption. See Caudillo v. United States, 253 F.2d 513 (C.A. 9th Cir.1958); Costello v. United States, 324 F.2d 260, 263-264 (C.A. 9th Cir.1963); United States v. Soto, 256 F.2d 729, 735 (C.A. 7th Cir.1958); Borne v. United States, 332 F.2d 565, 566 (C.A. 5th Cir.1964); United States v. Gibson, 310 F.2d 79, 82 (C.A.2d Cir.1962). However, there is no indication that, in any of these cases, the court had before it or took into account even a fraction of the evidence which we have considered; in one instance, the lack of evidence was expressly stated to be the ground of decision. See United States v. Gibson, supra. See also Costello v. United States, supra. The only lower court which conducted a factual inquiry in any way comparable to our own also held the presumption unconstitutional. See United States v. Adams, 293 F. Supp. 776 (D.C.S.D.N.Y.1968).
I also concur in reversal of the petitioner's conviction on Count 2 of the indictment, based on 21 U.S.C. § 176a. That section makes it a crime to import marihuana into the United States or to receive, conceal, or transport it, knowing it to have been imported contrary to law, and then goes on to provide that the mere possession of marihuana shall be "deemed sufficient evidence to authorize conviction unless the defendant explains his possession to the satisfaction of the jury." The trial court in this case charged the jury that proof that petitioner merely had possession of marihuana was sufficient to authorize a finding that he knew it had been imported or brought into the United States contrary to law. It is clear beyond doubt that the fact of possession alone is not enough to support an inference that the possessor knew it had been imported. Congress has no more constitutional power to tell a jury it can convict upon any such forced and baseless inference than it has power to tell juries they can convict a defendant of a crime without any evidence at all from which an inference of guilt could be drawn. See Thompson v. Louisville, 362 U. S. 199 (1960). Under our system of separation of powers, Congress is just as incompetent to instruct the judge and jury in an American court what evidence is enough for conviction as the courts are to tell the Congress what policies it must adopt in writing criminal laws. The congressional presumption, therefore, violates the constitutional right of a defendant to be tried by jury in a court set up in accordance with the commands of the Constitution. It clearly deprives a defendant of his right not to be convicted and punished for a crime without
Oral Argument - December 11, 1968