Opinion ID: 1474108
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: The Secretary Has Exercised His Power to Require Disclosure of ALL Political Activities.

Text: We conclude then that the Secretary has the power to require a full disclosure of all political activities of a registrant. Our next question is whether that power has been exercised. A fair interpretation of paragraph (12) of Chapter IV of the Regulations would be that it had been expressly discussed. Agents of foreign principals who engage, whether or not on behalf of their foreign principal, in activities not included among the exceptions set forth in the act and regulations shall be considered subject to the requirement of registration. [Italics supplied] Doing some paraphrasing suggested in part by the defendant during oral argument, this regulation reads: (political) agents of foreign principals who engage in (political) activities shall register. This is a fair transposition if the language whether or not on behalf of their foreign principal is excluded, for the only agents of foreign principals with which the Act is concerned are political ones, and again activities that are not among the exceptions are political ones. Yet this can scarcely be the meaning of the regulation for it is already abundantly clear that political agents are to register. Hence it seems that the important clause is, whether or not [the registrant's activities are] on behalf of [his] foreign principal. Whether or not they are, he shall be subject to the requirement of registration, and being subject to the requirement of registration must mean not only the act of registering but also all the duties and concomitants of registration. We interpret the regulation to mean that all political activities of an agent, whether they are done as a part of his agency or on his own, shall be fully disclosed. This interpretation is fortified by question 11 of the form: Comprehensive statement of nature of business of registrant. Other items in the form bring out the nature of the foreign principal's business, and the details of the principal-agent relationship. Item 10, for example, reads: nature of business of foreign principal   . In Item 11 attention is focused upon the registrant and the scope of the statement is enlarged: make a comprehensive statement of the nature of your business. In view of a large part of the meaning of the word comprehensive, we believe that the answer, public-relations, for example, would not be satisfactory. Comprehensive's usual meaning calls for more fullness and more detail than that. [13] The form, moreover, has some 8½ blank lines after this statement. The registrant has been warned to file supplementary papers if necessary in order to give complete answers. This item of the form does not merely fortify our interpretation of the regulation in paragraph (12). Item 11 in itself is an exercise of the Secretary's power requiring registrant to reveal his own political activities. The form is a regular and official action of the Secretary. Its effect is that of a rule or regulation. We conclude that the statute authorizes the Secretary to require and the Secretary has required a registrant to reveal with some semblance of detail all political activities.