Opinion ID: 709199
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Sec. 1001 Counts

Text: 11 As the United States correctly points out, this court does not now have jurisdiction to order the district court to dismiss the Sec. 1001 counts, as the appellant belatedly requests, upon the basis of the Supreme Court's statutory interpretation in Hubbard. Whether such a statutory challenge may properly be the subject of a pretrial appeal--Kolter points to no authority for that proposition--we need not determine, for the challenge is surely out of place in the present case: Kolter never asked the district court to dismiss the Sec. 1001 counts. 12 At the same time, the Government asks that we address the appellant's challenge to the Sec. 1001 counts upon the basis of the speech or debate clause in order to conserve judicial resources and to avoid further delay of the trial in this case. The Government made the same point in seeking rehearing in Rostenkowski, and we reject it again for the same reasons. See 68 F.3d at 490. We think it would be short-sighted to rule upon the constitutionality of Sec. 1001 as applied to a Member of Congress before the district court determines whether, in light of Hubbard, the statute applies to the House Finance Office. See, e.g., Spector Motor Service, Inc. v. McLaughlin, 323 U.S. 101, 105, 65 S.Ct. 152, 154, 89 L.Ed. 101 (1944) (we ought not to pass on questions of constitutionality ... unless such adjudication is unavoidable). As we noted before, the statutory question may well turn upon facts that have not been developed in the record before us. Rostenkowski, 68 F.3d at 490. In any event, the status of the House Finance Office has been fully briefed in the district court in the Rostenkowski case. Therefore, as we said in denying rehearing in that case, it is unlikely that much in the way of either judicial resources or trial delay could be saved by our resolving the constitutional issues before the district court first passes upon the question, id. at 490, and we decline to do so.