Court Opinion

ID: 9430164
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:29:07.138491+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:23.479197
License: Public Domain

Justice Stevens,
with whom Justice Brennan and Justice Marshall join, dissenting.
The Court does not appreciate the value of individual liberty. It may well be true that in the vast majority of cases a veteran does not need to employ a lawyer, ante, at 329-330, and that the system of processing veterans benefit claims, by *359and large, functions fairly and effectively without the participation of retained counsel. Ante, at 327. Everyone agrees, however, that there are at least some complicated cases in which the services of a lawyer would be usefiil to the veteran and, indeed, would simplify the work of the agency by helping to organize the relevant facts and to identify the controlling issues. Ante, at 328, 329. What is the reason for denying the veteran the right to counsel of his choice in such cases? The Court gives us two answers: First, the paternalistic interest in protecting the veteran from the consequences of his own improvidence, ante, at 323; and second, the bureaucratic interest in minimizing the cost of administering the benefit program. Ante, at 323-325. I agree that both interests are legitimate, but neither provides an adequate justification for the restraint on liberty imposed by the $10-fee limitation.
To explain my disagreement with the Court, I shall first add a few words about the history of the fee limitation, then identify the flaws in the Court’s analysis, and finally explain why I believe § 3404(c) and § 3405 impose an unconstitutional restraint on individual liberty.
I — <
The first fee limitation — $5 per claim — was enacted in 1862.1 That limitation was repealed two years later and *360replaced by the $ 10-fee limitation, which has survived ever since.2 The limitation was designed to protect the veteran from extortion or improvident bargains with unscrupulous lawyers.3 Obviously, it was believed that the number of scoundrels practicing law was large enough to justify a legislative prohibition against charging excessive fees.
At the time the $10-fee limitation was enacted, Congress presumably considered that fee reasonable. The legal work *361involved in preparing a veteran’s claim consisted of little more than filling out an appropriate form, and, in terms of the average serviceman’s base pay, a $10 fee then was roughly the equivalent of a $580 fee today.4 At its inception, therefore, the fee limitation had neither the purpose nor the effect of precluding the employment of reputable counsel by veterans. Indeed, the statute then, as now, expressly contemplated that claims for veterans benefits could be processed by “agents or attorneys.”5
The fact that the statute was aimed at unscrupulous attorneys is confirmed by the provision for criminal penalties. Instead of just making an agreement to pay a greater fee unenforceable — as an anticipatory pledge of an interest in future pension benefits is unenforceable — the Act contains a flat prohibition against the direct or indirect collection of a greater fee, and provides that an attorney who charges more than $10 may be imprisoned for up to two years at hard labor.6 Thus, an unscrupulous moneylender or mer*362chant who might try to take advantage of an improvident veteran might have difficulty collecting his bill, but the unscrupulous lawyer might go to jail.
The language in § 3405, particularly the use of the words “directly or indirectly,” apparently would apply to consultations between a veteran and a lawyer concerning a claim that is ultimately allowed, as well as to an appearance before the agency itself. In today’s market, the reasonable fee for even the briefest conference would surely exceed $10. Thus, the law that was enacted in 1864 to protect veterans from unscrupulous lawyers — those who charge excessive fees — effectively denies today’s veteran access to all lawyers who charge reasonable fees for their services.7
I — I 1 — 1
The Court s opinion blends its discussion of the paternalistic interest in protecting veterans from unscrupulous lawyers and the bureaucratic interest in minimizing the cost of administration in a way that implies that each interest reinforces the other. Actually the two interests are quite different and merit separate analysis.
In my opinion, the bureaucratic interest in minimizing the cost of administration is nothing but a red herring.8 Congress has not prohibited lawyers from participating in the processing of claims for benefits and there is no reason why it *363should.9 The complexity of the agency procedures can be regulated by limiting the number of hearings, the time for argument, the length of written submissions, and in other ways, but there is no reason to believe that the agency’s cost of administration will be increased because a claimant is represented by counsel instead of appearing pro se.10 The informality that the Court emphasizes is desirable because it no doubt enables many veterans, or their lay representatives, to handle their claims without the assistance of counsel. But there is no reason to assume that lawyers would add confusion rather than clarity to the proceedings. As a profession, lawyers are skilled communicators dedicated to the service of their clients. Only if it is assumed that the average lawyer is incompetent or unscrupulous can one rationally conclude that the efficiency of the agency’s work would be undermined by allowing counsel to participate whenever a veteran is willing to pay for his services. I categorically reject any such assumption.
The fact that a lawyer’s services are unnecessary in most cases, and might even be counterproductive in a few, does not justify a total prohibition on their participation in all pension claim proceedings. This fact is perhaps best illustrated by Gagnon v. Scarpelli, 411 U. S. 778 (1973), a case in which we held that the State does not have a constitutional obliga*364tion to provide a parolee or probationer with counsel in every revocation proceeding. The informality of the proceeding makes counsel unnecessary in most cases, but we squarely held that in some cases a lawyer’s presence was constitutionally required.11 Although, surprisingly, the Court relies on Gagnon today, see ante, at 324-325, not a word in that opinion implies that a parolee or probationer could be denied the right to have retained counsel represent him. The case-by-case approach to the participation of counsel endorsed in Gagnon12 is the approach that should apply to veterans claim proceedings. Lawyers may not be needed in most cases, but should be permitted in appropriate cases.13 The interest in efficient administration plainly does not justify a total prohibition on representation by counsel. Nor can it justify a rule that indirectly accomplishes that result by discouraging their participation in all cases.
*365The paternalistic interest in protecting the veteran from his own improvidence would unquestionably justify a rule that simply prevented lawyers from overcharging their clients. Most appropriately, such a rule might require agency approval, or perhaps judicial review, of counsel fees. It might also establish a reasonable ceiling, subject to exceptions for especially complicated cases. In fact, I assume that the $10-fee limitation was justified by this interest when it was first enacted in 1864. But time has brought changes in the value of the dollar, in the character of the legal profession, in agency procedures, and in the ability of the veteran to proceed without the assistance of counsel.
In 1982, the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs reviewed the fee limitation and concluded:
“As was discussed in the VA’s agency report on S. 330 (VA report on S. 330 at pages 16-17 (reprinted at pages 98-99 of S. Rept. No. 96-178)), the basis for Congressional action, first after the Civil War and then after World War I, limiting the amount an attorney could receive for representing a claimant before the VA was grounded in a belief that the lawyers of that day were unscrupulous and were taking unfair advantage of veterans by retaining an unwarranted portion of the veterans’ statutory entitlement in return for very limited legal assistance. Whatever the merits of such a view at the time the limitation was imposed, and despite numerous court opinions upholding the validity of the statutory limitation in the face of challenges to its constitutionality (see, e. g., Gendron v. Saxbe, 389 F. Supp. 1303 (C. D. Cal.), aff’d mem. sub nom, Gendron v. Levi, 423 U. S. 802 (1975); Staub v. Roudebush, 574 F. 2d 637 (D. C. Cir. 1978)), it is the Committee’s position that such a view of today’s organized bar, particularly in light of the widespread network of local bar associations that now generally police attorney behavior, is no longer tenable.
“The Committee is also of the view that the current statutory limitation is an undue hindrance on the rights *366of veterans and other claimants to select representatives of their own choosing to represent them in VA matters. As noted above, there is a strong and vital system of veterans service officers who provide excellent representation at no cost to claimants. The Committee fully expects and believes that this system will continue and prosper, undiminished by the new right of judicial review and opportunity for attorney participation created in this legislation. However, an individual should not be arbitrarily restricted in retaining an attorney, whether such representation is desired for reasons of personal preference or because of a concern that the claim is likely to be denied a second time by the Board of Veterans’ Appeals and will be appealed to court. A claimant could well conclude, for example, that some further development of the administrative record in a complex case would be of critical importance while the matter is still before the agency and that an attorney would be better able to so develop the record. ” S. Rep. No. 97-466, pp. 50-51 (1982) (emphasis added).
Moreover, the growth of the strong system of active service officers who provide excellent representation at no cost to claimants is significant because it has virtually eliminated the danger that a claimant will be tempted to waste money on unnecessary legal services. As the Senate Committee recognized, however, the availability of such competent, free representation is not a reason for denying a claimant the right to employ counsel of his own choice in an appropriate case.
I — I H — I I — I
It is evident from what I have written that I regard the fee limitation as unwise and an insult to the legal profession. It does not follow, however, that it is unconstitutional. The Court correctly notes that the presumption of constitutionality that attaches to every Act of Congress requires the challenger to bear the burden of demonstrating its invalidity. *367Before attempting to do so, I must comment on two aspects of the Court’s rhetoric: Its references to the age of the statute and to the repudiation of Lochner v. New York, 198 U. S. 45 (1905).
The fact that the $10-fee limitation has been on the books since 1864 does not, in my opinion, add any force at all to the presumption of validity. Surely the age of the de jure segregation at issue in Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U. S. 483 (1954), or the age of the gerrymandered voting districts at issue in Baker v. Carr, 369 U. S. 186 (1962), provided no legitimate support for those rules. In this case, the passage of time, instead of providing support for the fee limitation, has effectively eroded the one legitimate justification that formerly made the legislation rational. The age of the statute cuts against, not in favor of, its validity.
It is true that the statute that was incorrectly invalidated in Lochner provided protection for a group of workers, but that protection was a response to the assumed disparity in the bargaining power of employers and employees, and was justified by the interest in protecting the health and welfare of the protected group. It is rather misleading to imply that a rejection of the Lochner holding is an endorsement of rational paternalism as a legitimate legislative goal. See ante, at 323. But in any event, the kind of paternalism reflected in this statute as it operates today is irrational. It purports to • protect the veteran who has little or no need for protection, and it actually denies him assistance in cases in which the help of his own lawyer may be of critical importance.14
*368But the statute is unconstitutional for a reason that is more fundamental than its apparent irrationality. What is at stake is the right of an individual to consult an attorney of his choice in connection with a controversy with the Government. In my opinion that right is firmly protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment15 and by the First Amendment.16
The Court recognizes that the Veterans’ Administration’s procedures must provide claimants with due process of law, but then concludes that the constitutional requirement is satisfied because the appellees have not proved that the “probability of error under the present system” is unacceptable.17 Ante, at 326. In short, if 80 or 90 percent of the cases are correctly decided, why worry about those individuals whose claims have been erroneously rejected and who might have prevailed if they had been represented by counsel?
The fundamental error in the Court’s analysis is its assumption that the individual’s right to employ counsel of his choice in a contest with his sovereign is a kind of second-class *369interest that can be assigned a material value and balanced on a utilitarian scale of costs and benefits.18 It is true that the veteran’s right to benefits is a property right and that in fashioning the procedures for administering the benefit program, the Government may appropriately weigh the value of additional procedural safeguards against their pecuniary costs. It may, for example, properly decide not to provide free counsel to claimants. But we are not considering a procedural right that would involve any cost to the Govern*370ment.19 We are concerned with the individual’s right to spend his own money to obtain the advice and assistance of independent counsel in advancing his claim against the Government.20
In all criminal proceedings, that right is expressly protected by the Sixth Amendment. As I have indicated, in civil disputes with the Government I believe that right is also protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment and by the First Amendment. If the Government, in the guise of a paternalistic interest in protecting the citizen from his own improvidence, can deny him access to independent counsel of his choice, it can change the character of our free society.21 Even though a dispute with the sovereign may only involve property rights, or as in this case a statu*371tory entitlement, the citizen’s right of access to the independent, private bar is itself an aspect of liberty that is of critical importance in our democracy.22 Just as I disagree with the present Court’s crabbed view of the concept of “liberty,”23 so do I reject its apparent unawareness of the function of the independent lawyer as a guardian of our freedom.24
In my view, regardless of the nature of the dispute between the sovereign and the citizen — whether it be a criminal trial, a proceeding to terminate parental rights, a claim for social security benefits, a dispute over welfare benefits, or a pension claim asserted by the widow of a soldier who was killed on the battlefield — the citizen’s right to consult an independent lawyer and to retain that lawyer to speak on his or her behalf is an aspect of liberty that is priceless. It *372should not be bargained away on the notion that a totalitarian appraisal of the mass of claims processed by the Veterans’ Administration does not identify an especially high probability of error.25
Unfortunately, the reason for the Court’s mistake today is all too obvious. It does not appreciate the value of individual liberty.
I respectfully dissent.

 Sections 6 and 7 of the Act of July 14, 1862, which authorized a grant of pensions to certain military personnel, provided as follows:
“Sec. 6. And be it further enacted, That the fees of agents and attorneys for making out and causing to be executed the papers necessary to establish a claim for a pension, bounty, and other allowance, before the Pension Office under this act, shall not exceed the following rates: For making out and causing to be duly executed a declaration by the applicant, with the necessary affidavits, and forwarding the same to the Pension Office, with the requisite correspondence, five dollars. In cases wherein additional testimony is required by the Commissioner of Pensions, for each affidavit so required and executed and forwarded (except the affidavits of surgeons, for which such agents and attorneys shall not be entitled to any fees,) one dollar and fifty cents.
“Sec. 7. And be it further enacted, That any agent or attorney who shall, directly or indirectly, demand or receive any greater compensation for his *360services under this act than is prescribed in the preceding section of this act, or who shall contract or agree to prosecute any claim for a pension, bounty, or other allowance under this act, on the condition that he shall receive a per centum upon, or any portion of the amount of such claim, or who shall wrongfully withhold from a pensioner or other claimant the whole or any part of the pension or claim allowed and due to such pensioner or claimant, shall be deemed guilty of a high misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall, for every such offence, be fined not exceeding three hundred dollars, or imprisoned at hard labor not exceeding two years, or both, according to the circumstances and aggravations of the offence.” 12 Stat. 568.

 On July 4,1864, Congress repealed the sixth and seventh sections of the 1862 Act, and substituted the following sections which raised the maximum fee to $10:
“Sec. 12. And be it further enacted, That the fees of agents and attorneys for making out and causing to be executed the papers necessary to establish a claim for a pension, bounty, and other allowance before the pension-office, under this act, shall not exceed the following rates: For making out and causing to be duly executed a declaration by the applicant, with the necessary affidavits, and forwarding the same to the pension-office, with the requisite correspondence, ten dollars; which sum shall be received by such agent or attorney in full for all services in obtaining such pension, and shall not be demanded or received in whole or in part until such pension shall be obtained; and the sixth and seventh sections of an act entitled ‘An act to grant pensions,’ approved July fourteenth, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, are hereby repealed.” 13 Stat. 389.
Section 13 of the 1864 Act reenacted the criminal penalties contained in § 7 of the 1862 Act. Ibid. See n. 1, supra.

 See Cong. Globe, 37th Cong., 2d Sess., 2101, 3119 (1862); Cong. Globe, 41st Cong., 2d Sess., 1967, 4459 (1870). See also Calhoun v. Massie, 253 U. S. 170, 173 (1920).

 The base pay for all military personnel averaged $231 annually in 1865. U. S. Dept, of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970, Part I, p. 175 (1975). By contrast, military base pay for all personnel averaged $13,400 in 1984. See U. S. Dept, of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Statistical Abstract of the United States 1985, p. 345.

 Today, of course, the procedures are more elaborate than they were in 1864, and the number of claims presenting complex issues of law or fact has greatly increased. It is no longer true that the attorney would seldom, if ever, be asked to do more than fill out a simple form.

 Recently, we noted the effect of criminal sanctions on constitutional analysis:
“The restriction involved here is not merely an effort by the Government to regulate the use of its own property, such as was involved in United States Postal Service v. Greenburgh Civic Assns., 453 U. S. 114 (1981), or the dismissal of a speaker from Government employment, such as was involved in Connick v. Myers, 461 U. S. 138 (1983). It is a flat, across-the-board criminal sanction . . . .” FEC v. National Conservative PAC, 470 U. S. 480, 496 (1985).

 In its Report on S. 349 in the 97th Congress, the Veterans’ Administration stated:
“It is probably true that, except for those whose low income qualifies them for free legal services, the current fee limitation effectively precludes attorney representation before the VA.” S. Rep. No. 97-466, p. 102 (1982) (letter of Veterans’ Administration’s Acting Director to Hon. Alan K. Simpson, dated July 14, 1981).

 Section 401 of a bill approved unanimously by the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs would have removed the $10-fee limitation for services rendered in representing a claimant following an initial decision of the Board of Veterans’ Appeals. • The Committee Report stated: “Enactment of the provisions in Section 401 are estimated to entail no cost.” Id., at 79.

 The Court’s entire discussion of the bureaucratic interest is based on the assumption that the removal of the fee limitation constitutes a “proposed additional procedure.” See ante, at 327. It would be more accurate to state that the proposal would permit more qualified spokesmen to participate in the existing procedure.

 The District Court unequivocally found that, apart from the paternalistic interest, the Government would not be harmed in the slightest by lifting the fee limitation. The District Court wrote:
“The government has neither argued nor shown that lifting the fee limit would harm the government in any way, except as the paternalistic protector of claimants’ supposed best interests.” 589 F. Supp. 1302, 1323 (ND Cal. 1984).
See also n. 8, supra.

 We stated:
“We thus find no justification for a new inflexible constitutional rule with respect to the requirement of counsel. We think, rather, that the decision as to the need for counsel must be made on a case-by-ease basis in the exercise of a sound discretion by the state authority charged with responsibility for administering the probation and parole system. Although the presence and participation of counsel will probably be both undesirable and constitutionally unnecessary in most revocation hearings, there will remain certain eases in which fundamental fairness — the touchstone of due process-will require that the State provide at its expense counsel for indigent probationers or parolees.” 411 U. S., at 790.

 As we expressly noted:
“The need for counsel at revocation hearings derives, not from the invariable attributes of those hearings, but rather from the peculiarities of particular cases.” Id., at 789.

 In FEC v. National Conservative PAC, 470 U. S., at 493, the Court noted that “allowing the presentation of views while forbidding the expenditure of more than $1,000 to present them is much like allowing a speaker in a public hall to express his views while denying him the use of an amplifying system.” By analogy, allowing the presentation of views by a pro se claimant while forbidding the expenditure of more than $10 to present them is much like allowing a speaker in a public hall to express his views while denying him the use of an amplifying system.

 Justice Brandeis’ statement in Olmstead v. United States, 277 U. S. 438 (1928), is worth remembering in this context:
“Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the Government’s purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.” Id., at 479 (Brandéis, J., dissenting).

 Cf. Wright v. Ingold, 445 P. 2d 109, 111-112 (CA7 1971).

 Some propositions are so obvious that they seldom need to be stated explicitly. In a series of cases the Court has considered the extent to which the First Amendment protects the lawyer’s right to solicit business, finding protection in some situations but not others. Compare In re Pri-mus, 436 U. S. 412, 423-426 (1978), with Ohralik v. Ohio State Bar Assn., 436 U. S. 447 (1978). But in all of those cases it was necessarily assumed that the individual’s right to ask for, and to receive, legal advice from the lawyer of his choice was fully protected by the First Amendment. That assumption was explicitly acknowledged by the parties in the Primus ease and recognized in a footnote to our opinion, 436 U. S., at 426, n. 17 (“There is no doubt that such activity is protected by the First Amendment”). If ordinary communication between attorney and client is so protected, it is doubly important to prevent abridgment of communication in support of an exercise of the right to petition the Government for the redress of a veteran’s grievances. See California Motor Transport Co. v. Trucking Unlimited, 404 U. S. 508, 510 (1972).

 Indeed, at one point in its opinion the Court seems to take the position that there is no constitutional defect unless “the entire system is operated contrary to its governing regulations.” Ante, at 324, n. 11.

 As I explained in protesting the Court’s denigration of the right to counsel in proceedings to terminate parental rights:
“The issue is one of fundamental fairness, not of weighing the pecuniary costs against the societal benefits. Accordingly, even if the costs to the State were not relatively insignificant but rather were just as great as the costs of providing prosecutors, judges, and defense counsel to ensure the fairness of criminal proceedings, I would reach the same result in this category of eases. For the value of protecting our liberty from deprivation by the State without due process of law is priceless.” Lassiter v. Department of Social Services of Durham County, 452 U. S. 18, 60 (1981) (dissenting).
Moreover, the Framers of the Constitution created a federal sovereign whose powers were to be exercised by different branches — a Legislature, an Executive, and a Judiciary — and which was expected to coexist with at least 13 other sovereigns having jurisdiction over the same people and the same territory. Surely, if they were motivated by a desire to improve the efficiency of the economy, they could have developed a much more simple design for the new Government. The reason they did not do so is perfectly clear. The text of the Constitution is replete with provisions that are intended to secure the blessings of liberty — or conversely, to protect against the dangers of tyranny — notwithstanding their possible costs. Significantly, those protections not only recognized the evils associated with a monarch, or an executive with absolute power, but also the risk of tyranny by an unrestrained majority. The limited delegations of power to the Federal Government, the tripartite division of authority among three branches of the Federal Government, the division of the Legislature into two Houses, the staggered terms of office, with Senators serving six years, the President four years, and Representatives only two, the provision for a Presidential veto of Acts of Congress, the guarantee of life tenure for federal judges — all of the checks and balances are consistent with the interest in protecting individual liberty from the possible misuse of power by a transient unrestrained majority.

 The way the Court utilizes the Mathews v. Eldridge procedural-due-process analysis is somewhat misleading. Here, appellees do not seek additional opportunities to be heard, to have counsel appointed at governmental expense, or any type of additional procedure. They simply want to exercise their right to choose, to consult, and to employ the services of legal counsel in order to conduct and manage their personal affairs — a right that should be unfettered in a free society.

 See Munn v. Illinois, 94 U. S. 113 (1877):
“No State 'shall deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law,’ says the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. . . . By the term ‘liberty,’ as used in the provision, something more is meant than the mere freedom from physical restraint or the bounds of a prison. It means freedom to go where one may choose, and to act in such manner, not inconsistent with the equal rights of others, as his judgment may dictate for the promotion of his happiness; that is, to pursue such callings and avocations as may be most suitable to develop his capacities, and give to them their highest enjoyment.” Id., at 142 (Field, J., dissenting).'

 As Justice Jackson recognized in American Communications Assn. v. Douds, 339 U. S. 382, 442-443 (1950):
“The priceless heritage of our society is the unrestricted constitutional right of each member to think as he 'will. Thought control is a copyright of totalitarianism, and we have no claim to it. It is not the function of our Government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the Government from falling into error.”

 The Solicitor General cavalierly states that “[n]othing in the First Amendment suggests that the fee limitation is unconstitutional because it restricts a claimant in hiring a private lawyer where other, adequate representation is available without charge.” Brief for Appellants 47. This statement misses a principle so plain and fundamental that I would think it would not need to be stated: Every citizen in this country is presumed to be unrestricted in consulting or employing an attorney on any matter, or in making the decision that legal representation for any purpose is not needed. As to this proposition, it makes no difference whether, as the Solicitor General claims, “the existing VA claims procedure is fair and adequate without privately retained attorneys,” ibid., a conclusion that the District Court rejected. The statute, moreover, on the one hand, recognizes and allows legal representation, but on the other hand restricts the veteran’s right to choose and to consult a legal representative in any meaningful manner, thus virtually reducing the right to counsel to nonexistence.

 Compare Meachum v. Fano, 427 U. S. 215, 225-226 (1976), with id., at 230 (Stevens, J., dissenting).

 That function was, however, well understood by Jack Cade and his followers, characters who are often forgotten and whose most famous line is often misunderstood. Dick’s statement (“The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers”) was spoken by a rebel, not a friend of liberty. See W. Shakespeare, King Henry VI, pt. II, Act IV, scene 2, line 72. As a careful reading of that text will reveal, Shakespeare insightfully realized that disposing of lawyers is a step in the direction of a totalitarian form of government.

 According to the Court, “process which is sufficient for the large majority of a group of claims is by constitutional definition sufficient for all of them.” Ante, at 330.