Opinion ID: 1721404
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Constitutionality of Statute Creating Committee.

Text: The appellee legislative Committee was created by Chapter 57-125, Laws of Florida 1957. The powers and duties of the Committee are delineated in Section 2 of the cited statute, which reads as follows: It shall be the duty of the committee to make as complete an investigation as times permits of all organizations whose principles or activities include a course of conduct on the part of any person or group which would constitute violence, or a violation of the laws of the state, or would be inimical to the well-being and orderly pursuit of their personal and business activities by the majority of the citizens of this state. Such investigations shall be conducted with the purpose of reporting to this legislature of the activities of such organizations to the end that corrective legislation may be adopted if found necessary to correct any abuses against the peace and dignity of the state. Although the constitutionality of the statute is assaulted by the appellants, we think we adequately disposed of this contention by our opinion in In re Petition of Graham, etc., supra. There, the same Graham who is presently an appellant had sought to quash a subpoena duces tecum requiring him to produce the books, records and membership lists of NAACP. We sustained the act against an assault on its constitutionality. We now re-affirm our view that the act is constitutional. In our former order we affirmed the trial judge when he denied a motion to quash the subpoena on the ground that Graham's objections because of alleged lack of pertinency to the subject of the inquiry authorized by the statute were premature. We held that it would not be possible to determine whether the subject inquiry would violate his constitutional rights until we were confronted by the actual questions to be propounded.