Opinion ID: 1511906
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Constitutionality of the Statutory Presumption.

Text: By far the most difficult problem in this case is the constitutionality of a presumption created in § 902(f). After declaring it unlawful for any person convicted of a crime of violence to receive any firearm in interstate or foreign commerce, the provision is that the possession of a firearm by such person shall be presumptive evidence that such firearm was received by such person in violation of the chapter. [26] The appellant did not press this point in his main brief or oral argument, though he discusses that portion of the government's argument in his reply brief. Nevertheless, because this is the first time the statute has been before an appellate court for consideration we think that fairness to the accused requires consideration of this problem as well as the other points already discussed. The obvious offhand response to such presumption in a criminal statute is that it violates the fundamental concept that a man is innocent until proved guilty by putting on him the burden of producing the facts which establish his innocence. Such a sweeping objection comes many years too late. [27] Mr. Justice Lurton, speaking for the Supreme Court in Mobile, J. & K. C. R. R. v. Turnipseed, 1910, 219 U.S. 35, 43, 31 S.Ct. 136, 138, 55 L.Ed. 78, 32 L.R.A.,N.S., 226, Ann.Cas.1912A, 463, stated a test that has many times been repeated, That a legislative presumption of one fact from evidence of another may not constitute a denial of due process    [if there is] some rational connection between the fact proved and the ultimate fact presumed, and that the inference of one fact from proof of another shall not be so unreasonable as to be a purely arbitrary mandate. This test was approved and applied fifteen years later to uphold a criminal prosecution under a statutory presumption in the Harrison Narcotics Act, 38 Stat. 785; Yee Hem v. United States, 1925, 268 U.S. 178, 45 S.Ct. 470, 69 L.Ed. 904. More recently, the late Mr. Justice Cardozo, speaking for the Court in Morrison v. California, 1934, 291 U.S. 82, 88, 54 S.Ct. 281, 284, 78 L.Ed. 664, states the testament somewhat more broadly. The decisions are manifold that within limits of reason and fairness the burden of proof may be lifted from the state in criminal prosecutions and cast on a defendant. The limits are in substance these, that the state shall have proved enough to make it just for the defendant to be required to repel what has been proved with excuse or explanation, or at least that upon a balancing of convenience or of the opportunities for knowledge the shifting of the burden will be found to be an aid to the accuser without subjecting the accused to hardship or oppression. The problem, therefore, becomes much narrower than at first appears, in view of the test of the constitutionality above set out. So far as the application to the facts of this case are concerned, we think the considerations show that the presumption is constitutional as applied to an interstate commerce shipment whether the more limited formula of the Turnipseed case or the broader generalization found in the Morrison case is followed. The gun in question certainly had two interstate journeys because it was proved that it was originally shipped from Connecticut to Illinois and it was found in the defendant's possession in New Jersey. Acquisition in New Jersey under the New Jersey law, would not have been easy. New Jersey, in common with many other States, [28] has rather stringent regulations surrounding the transfer of firearms of this type. The tendency is to require such transfers to be open, to make them more difficult and certainly to put obstacles in the way of acquisition by persons of criminal records like that of the defendant. Furthermore, Congress had, when the Federal Firearms Act was under consideration, evidence dealing with the interstate activity of armed law breakers. [29] In determining the constitutionality of the legislative solution of a problem courts are not to ignore the existence of such facts before legislative bodies even though the evidence of those facts is not part of the record in a particular case. United States v. Carolene Products Co., 1938, 304 U.S. 144, 58 S.Ct. 778, 82 L.Ed. 1234. We think these considerations are sufficient to protect the statute created presumption from the charge of arbitrariness. The scholarly counsel for the government presented another basis on which the presumption might be upheld. It is based upon the decision in Ferry v. Ramsey, 1928, 277 U.S. 88, 48 S.Ct. 443, 72 L.Ed. 796. There the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of a statute imposing civil liability upon a bank director for assenting to the receipt of deposits after knowledge of insolvency of the bank adding a presumption of knowledge of insolvency and assent to receipt where deposits were so received. Through Mr. Justice Holmes the majority of the Court recognized that the legislature had power to impose the liability regardless of knowledge. That being so, to do something less, in terms of a statutory presumption, is not unconstitutional. On that foundation the argument is made that Congress, under the commerce clause, could have made it a substantive crime for persons with records like that of the defendant to possess guns upon the theory that criminals with guns are the kind most likely to engage in interstate journeys. [30] The argument then concludes that if possession itself could have been penalized under the interstate commerce power, a statutory presumption of interstate shipment, however inept a way of reaching the same result, is not unconstitutional. This may be sound. We do not deem it necessary to go so far in this case. As stated above, we believe the presumption of interstate shipment can be sustained under orthodox formulae many times enunciated. We now come to the last question, that of the application of the statutory presumption as to the time of the acquisition of the weapon found in the possession of the defendant. The statute became effective July 30, 1938. § 906. The trial judge's instruction told the jury that the presumption was that the gun was shipped in interstate commerce if the jury found defendant obtained it subsequent to June 30, 1938. [31] The only direct evidence bearing on time of acquisition was that given by the defendant and his wife and sister. This testimony the jury evidently disbelieved as shown by its verdict of guilty. But without positive testimony by the government showing the time of acquisition the verdict cannot stand unless the statutory presumption applies both to the interstate commerce nature of the transaction and to the time thereof. If it does the defendant has no ground for complaint by reason of the jury's failure to follow the trial judge's instruction. We have no doubt that the possession of the firearm by one of the class of persons designated in the statute is intended to be treated as presumptive evidence both of the fact of interstate shipment and the time of receipt by such person. The words used quite evidently relate to the whole statute.    possession    shall be presumptive evidence that such firearm    was shipped    or received,    by such person in violation of this chapter. § 902(f). The chapter is the whole statute including § 906 which provides for its effective date and ending with § 909 giving its short title. [32] White v. United States, [33] a case under the importation section of the Harrison Narcotics Act, is an authority in point in the application of the presumptive evidence provision to the time element. Can presumption of acquisition in violation of the law be constitutionally applied? The government frankly admits that tested alone by the rational connection [34] between the fact proved and the fact presumed, presumption is indefensible. The evidence showed that the gun was shipped by its manufacturer in 1919 and that Tot was arrested and the weapon seized in September, 1938. The likelihood that he acquired it in the short time between the effective date of the statute and the date of his arrest is admittedly slight. But on the question of opportunities for knowledge mentioned in the phrasing of the test by Mr. Justice Cardozo, in the Morrison case, cited above, there is much more to be said. A man in possession of the gun is certainly in a position to know better than anybody else, when he got it. The statute does not, as warned against in the Turnipseed case, at page 43 of 219 U. S., at page 138 of 31 S.Ct., 55 L.Ed. 78, 32 L.R.A.,N.S., 226, Ann.Cas.1912A, 463, operate to preclude the party from the right to present his defense to the main fact thus presumed. The defendant in this case did present his evidence. It would clearly, if believed, have established possession long before the statute was passed. That the trier of the fact will not believe one's story is a risk common to all litigants, although it may be granted that it bore particularly hard upon Tot, whose previous criminal record was already in the case. It must be borne in mind that the legislation here is not sweeping in its scope as directed against all citizens in the possession of inherently innocent objects. It is dealing with firearms. And it is directed only at that narrow group which has already been convicted of crimes of violence. This question may be approached from another angle to reach the same result. That the legislature in accomplishing an admittedly lawful and constitutional object may protect the result sought by a means which when considered by themselves might be unconstitutional is well established. Mr. Justice Holmes states the point in characteristic epigram:    the law allows a penumbra to be embraced that goes beyond the outline of its object in order that the object may be secured. [35] The concept is no stronger or no weaker by calling it the penumbra doctrine. [36] There are numerous instances of this power. Thus a statute which forbids the removal of original marks from imported merchandise is constitutional, even after the latter have come to rest in a State, as one reasonably calculated to render effective the principal requirement that the goods bear a mark at the time of importation. United States v. Ury, 2 Cir., 1939, 106 F.2d 28, 124 A.L.R. 569. A State statute forbidding the possession of game during the closed season is constitutional even if applied to game taken elsewhere and brought into the State. Silz v. Hesterberg, 1908, 211 U.S. 31, 29 S.Ct. 10, 53 L.Ed. 75. Regulations requiring certain labeling of denatured alcohol, unsuitable as a beverage, were upheld within the power of Congress under the Eighteenth Amendment. Selzman v. United States, 1925, 268 U.S. 466, 45 S.Ct. 574, 69 L.Ed. 1054. So, too, forbidding the prescribing of intoxicating malt liquors for medicinal purposes was upheld as an aid to prohibition enforcement. Everard's Breweries v. Day, 1924, 265 U.S. 545, 44 S.Ct. 628, 68 L.Ed. 1174. Likewise, the forfeiture of empty barrels, bottles, corks and cartons was sustained. Danovitz v. United States, 1930, 281 U.S. 389, 50 S.Ct. 344, 74 L.Ed. 923. The list, which does not pretend to be exhaustive, may be closed with reference to United States v. Darby, 1941, 312 U.S. 100, 657, 61 S.Ct. 451, 462, 85 L.Ed. 609, 132 A.L.R. 1430, a case under the Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 201 et seq. where the Court said    Congress    may require the employer, as a means of enforcing the valid law, to keep a record showing whether he has in fact complied with it. The requirement for records even of intrastate transactions is an appropriate means of the legitimate end. The social end sought to be achieved by this legislation, the protection of society against violent men armed with dangerous weapons, all would concede to be fundamental in organized government. The entry of the federal authority in the field to help accomplish this purpose has not been challenged. It has been taken for granted by both sides in the discussion of this case. We also think it may be assumed. In accomplishing the admittedly constitutional object we do not think the means taken by this statute, while stringent, have become so oppressive and arbitrary that we are entitled to say that Congress has exceeded its authority in acting without due process of law. The judgment is affirmed.