Opinion ID: 1721404
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: Legislative Power to Investigate.

Text: It has long been recognized that a legislative body has the power to conduct investigations in order to obtain information on subjects of legislation. Implicit in the power to legislate is the authority to seek out and acquire needed information in the rightful exercise of that power. This may be done through duly constituted committees. Compulsory process is a procedural incident to obtaining the information. McGrain v. Daugherty, 273 U.S. 135, 47 S.Ct. 319, 71 L.Ed. 580. Once a valid legislative objective is established then the power of inquiry with effective process to obtain it is an essential concomitant of the legislative authority to act. We here inject the warning that this is not an unbridled power of government. Moderation, restraint and caution should be the rule in exercising it. If not circumscribed by reasonable limitations it is one which could lead to abuses with attendant encroachments on individual liberties. The privilege should never be sadistically employed as a media to hunt witches. It should never be exercised merely for the sake of disclosure to the detriment of the citizen under interrogation. Legitimate legislative action is the ultimate objective and the prime justification for the inquiry. We find in this record no evidence whatever that the appellee Committee has in any fashion abused its powers or undertaken to embarrass the appellants merely for the sake of arbitrary disclosure. In actuality the counsel for the Committee publicly announced that no inferences adverse to any of the witnesses should be drawn merely from the fact that they were subpoenaed. He made it clear that the fact that a witness was called should not be construed as a suspicion of his disloyalty. At the opening of the hearing the Chairman of the Committee clearly delineated by an opening statement the reasons for and the subject of the inquiry. His statement is summarized in more detail hereafter. He did this in order to enable the witnesses to determine the pertinency of the questions propounded to them. Chapter 57-125, supra, was read in its entirety. It was made clear throughout the hearing that the NAACP, as an organization, was not considered in and of itself to be associated with the Communist Party. It was pointed out that the purpose of the inquiry was to determine whether members of the Communist Party or fellow travelers had so surreptitiously penetrated and infiltrated the NAACP, as well as other legitimate organizations, as to justify state action on the subject. There can be no doubt, therefore, that all of the witnesses were fully informed as to the subject of the inquiry. We come next to determine the essential question as to whether the inquiry was being conducted to obtain information to support legitimate legislative objectives. In other words, could the information sought by the Committee be employed by the Florida Legislature as a basis for enacting laws or pursuing other proper legislative action?