Court Opinion

ID: 9428900
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:25:06.297062+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:15.997508
License: Public Domain

*291Justice White,
with whom Justice Brennan joins,
dissenting.
The majority reverses petitioner’s conviction under 18 U. S. C. § 1014 on the grounds that the Government has not shown that he made a “false statement or report” or “willfully overvalued] any land, property or security.” Ante, at 284. According to the majority, a check is not a statement; it is merely an order to the drawee bank to pay the face amount to the payee and a promise to pay the amount of the check upon notice of dishonor. Ante, at 284-285. Like Justice Marshall, I do not disagree with the majority that under the Uniform Commercial Code a check constitutes an order to the drawee bank and a promise to pay upon notice of dishonor. However, the fact that the Uniform Commercial Code describes a check in this manner does not mean that a check does not carry with it other representations, for the Code does not purport to contain an all-inclusive definition of a check.
It defies common sense and everyday practice to maintain, as the majority does, that a check carries with it no representation as to the drawer’s account balance. No bank would give a customer immediate credit for a check drawn on another bank or reduce a check to cash if it did not believe that the check would be paid in the normal course of collection. It could be argued that petitioner did not make a false statement with respect to the May 10 check drawn on the Pelican Bank because he knew the bank would pay the check through its dummy account. However, petitioner does not contend that he had any such arrangement with the Winn Bank, and thus the May 9 check for $58,500 drawn on the Winn Bank, when his balance was $4,649.97, can fairly be said to constitute a false statement. In any event, a properly instructed jury surely found that Williams had made false representations with respect to each of the checks that were the subject of this indictment.
If the majority really means what it says in Part II-A of its opinion — that the Government failed to show that petitioner *292made a false statement or overvalued property or security— it is unnecessary to explore the legislative history of § 1014 or to apply the rule of lenity. On the other hand, if the majority reverses the Court of Appeals because it cannot conceive that Congress intended § 1014 to reach the conduct at issue because the area has long been regulated by state law, it is not necessary to employ the fiction that a check does not entail a representation that it will be paid in the normal course of business by the drawee bank. Because the majority opinion appears to me to rest on that fiction, I respectfully dissent. I also join Justice Marshall’s dissenting opinion.