Court Opinion

ID: 9479203
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 07:11:26.607005+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:46:53.149108
License: Public Domain

EDWARDS, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
In construing a criminal act, appellate judges have no license to take “liberties with unequivocal statutory language,” nor may we “manufacture ambiguity where *455none exists.” United States v. Batchelder, 442 U.S. 114, 121-22, 99 S.Ct. 2198, 2203, 60 L.Ed.2d 755 (1979). The majority has labored mightily to find an ambiguity in section 207(c) of the Ethics in Government Act, and then purported to invoke an infrequently-used doctrine that “ambiguities in criminal statutes must be resolved in favor of lenity,” id. at 121, 99 S.Ct. at 2203, to overturn the conviction of Franklyn Nofziger. But “there is no ambiguity to resolve,” id., and, consequently, no basis for overturning Nofziger’s conviction.
Section 207(c) sets forth two criminal offenses, prohibiting former high-ranking government employees from (1) “appearing” before and (2) “communicating” with their former agencies, as follows:
Whoever, [being a covered government employee], within one year after such employment has ceased, [1] knowingly acts as agent or attorney for, or otherwise represents, anyone other than the United States in any formal or informal appearance before, or, [2] with the intent to influence, makes any oral or written communication on behalf of anyone other than the United States, to — [his former agency concerning a particular matter pending before or of direct and substantial interest to that agency] — [is subject to felony penalties].
18 U.S.C. § 207(c) (1982) (brackets and emphasis added). The language of the statute clearly indicates that “knowingly” is the mens rea requirement only for the “appearance offense,” while “with the intent to influence” is the mens rea requirement for the “communication offense.”
During the congressional debates leading to the enactment of the Ethics in Government Act, the Senate and House versions of section 207(c) were significantly different on the mens rea requirement. As stated in the Conference Report, the Senate bill covered
any former official, who “knowingly — (1) makes any appearance or attendance before, or (2) makes any written or oral communication to, and with the intent to influence the action of....”
H.R.REP. NO. 1756, 95th Cong., 2d Sess. 74 (1978), U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 1978, pp. 4216, 4390. The Senate bill thus made “knowingly” the mens rea requirement for both offenses. The House bill, on the other hand, set forth “two elements,” id., covering a former official who
(a) “knowingly acts as agent or attorney ... or otherwise represents ... in any formal or informal appearance before,”; (b) “or, with the intent to influence, make[s] any oral or written communication ... to....”
Id. at 74-75, U.S.Code Cong. & Admin. News 1978, pp. 4390, 4391. The House bill thus provided that “knowingly” was the mens rea requirement only for the appearance offense.
At the conclusion of the congressional debates, “[t]he conference adopted the House prohibition.” Id. at 75, U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 1978, 4391. Thus, the House version of section 207(c) is the one that was enacted into law.
The lack of dispute over the meaning of section 207(c) is highlighted even further in the Conference Report, for it says, in no uncertain terms, that Congress
understood that the two elements of the House language, as set forth above, are each independent of the other for the purposes of a violation of any subsection in which those terms appear.
Id. at 74, U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 1978, p. 4390. There can be no plainer indication of congressional intent.
With only a blithe invocation of the rule of lenity, the majority disregards the clear terms of the statute and ignores the clear expressions of congressional intent. The majority opinion thus enters the dangerous territory of judicial legislating. The doctrine of separation of powers proscribes any judicial rewriting of otherwise valid congressional statutes. The criminal justice process is sufficiently flexible to accommodate “quirks” in the system, through devices such as the exercise of prosecutorial discretion, plea bargaining arrangements, sentencing determinations and, sometimes, even through the questionable means of “jury nullification.” But *456“judicial nullification” is not a permissible way to ameliorate the consequences of a criminal prosecution. Quite simply, judges have “no justification for taking liberties with unequivocal statutory language.” Batchelder, 442 U.S. at 121-22, 99 S.Ct. at 2203. In my view, the majority’s invocation of the rule of lenity in this case is nothing more than impermissible “judicial nullification.”
In order to fully understand the overreach of the majority’s decision, one must understand how very rarely the rule of lenity is actually implemented. Indeed, as described by our former colleague, now Justice Scalia, when rejecting application of the rule of lenity to a criminal statute brought by a former congressman in United States v. Hansen, 772 F.2d 940 (D.C.Cir.1985), cert. denied, 475 U.S. 1045, 106 S.Ct. 1262, 89 L.Ed.2d 571 (1986), the rule “in truth ... provides little more than atmospherics, since it leaves open the crucial question — almost invariably present — of how much ambiguousness constitutes ... ambiguity.” 772 F.2d at 948.
Although the rule is a widely accepted theoretical notion, my review of the nearly one hundred federal cases in which reviewing courts in the last ten years have paid lip service to the principle reveals that, almost without exception, courts have found the rule to be altogether inapplicable to the facts before them. In the rare cases in which it has been applied, the rule has most often been used only in its “corollary” function, i.e., to decrease the extent of the punishment attached to a single conviction, rather than to overturn a conviction or an entire statute. See, e.g., Simpson v. United States, 435 U.S. 6, 15-16, 98 S.Ct. 909, 914-15, 55 L.Ed.2d 70 (1978); United States v. Grant, 816 F.2d 440 (9th Cir.1987). In fact, I could find only three cases in the last decade in which a reviewing court invoked the rule of lenity to overturn a criminal conviction based solely upon a finding that the statute under which a defendant was convicted was too vague or ambiguous to support a conviction.1 See Liparota v. United States, 471 U.S. 419, 105 S.Ct. 2084, 85 L.Ed.2d 434 (1985); United States v. Capano, 786 F.2d 122 (3d Cir.1986); United States v. Graham Mortgage Corp., 740 F.2d 414 (6th Cir.1984).
I have indulged this brief review of the case law to make a singular point: although no one would deny that the specter of the rule of lenity has had a significant impact on the operation of our democracy, the rule always has been used with the greatest circumspection. Historically, judges have applied it only in the most egregious cases of careless legislative drafting, i.e., where a criminal defendant has had no fair notice of proscribed conduct because it is not possible to comprehend the meaning of the criminal statute under which the defendant has been charged. The rule of lenity has been so narrowly applied because, in our system of government, we do not tolerate judicial rewriting of otherwise validly enacted criminal statutes. We recognize that if the rule of lenity is loosely applied, this will result in perhaps the most dangerous form of judicial activism, where “how much ambigu-ousness constitutes ambiguity” will be a matter of judicial whim.
Because I am unwilling to join the majority’s intrusion into a sphere properly reserved for Congress, I dissent.
I.
As the Supreme Court has consistently repeated, “the ‘touchstone’ of the rule of lenity ‘is statutory ambiguity.’ ” Bifulco v. United States, 447 U.S. 381, 387, 100 S.Ct. 2247, 2252, 65 L.Ed.2d 205 (1980); accord Lewis v. United States, 445 U.S. 55, 65, 100 S.Ct. 915, 921, 63 L.Ed.2d 198 (1980); Batchelder, 442 U.S. at 121-22, 99 *457S.Ct. at 2203; Huddleston v. United States, 415 U.S. 814, 831, 94 S.Ct. 1262, 1272, 39 L.Ed.2d 782 (1974). The Court elaborated in Huddleston that the rule of lenity
is rooted in the concern of the law for individual rights, and in the belief that fair warning should be accorded as to what conduct is criminal and punishable by deprivation of liberty or property.... The rule is also the product of an awareness that legislators and not the courts should define criminal activity. Zeal in forwarding these laudable policies, however, must not be permitted to shadow the understanding that “[s]ound rules of statutory interpretation exist to discover and not to direct the Congressional will.”
415 U.S. at 831, 94 S.Ct. at 1272. (emphasis added) (citations omitted). To my mind, the language and structure of section 207(c) reveal no ambiguity or uncertainty, making the rule of lenity completely irrelevant in this case.
The purported “ambiguity” troubling the majority is mystifying to me, because the basics of grammar and punctuation so clearly teach that the qualifying adverb “knowingly” only modifies the “appearance offense,” not the “communication offense,” under section 207(c). This being the case, we must enforce the statute “according to its terms,” United States v. Ron Pair Enterprises, — U.S. -, 109 S.Ct. 1026, 1030, 103 L.Ed.2d 290 (1989), and pursuant to the reasonable interpretation “mandated by [its] grammatical structure.” Id.
The Ron Pair Court found that the setting aside of one statutory clause by commas resulted in that phrase “stand[ing] independently] of the language that follows.” Id. 109 S.Ct. at 1031. A similar analysis is appropriate in the case before us. From a purely grammatical perspective, the comma that follows “appearance before” is a “stop,” which ends the first of the enumerated offenses; the comma following “United States” signals the end of the second offense. This choice of punctuation serves to create two independent clauses, each, consistent with the demands of parallel construction, incorporating its own adverbial “intent” modifier: “knowingly” is the adverbial modifier of the “appearance offense” and “with intent to influence” is the adverbial modifier of the “communication offense.” As the trial court properly found, in any ordinary reading of such a sentence, “knowingly” does not modify “with intent to influence”; to read otherwise would ignore or distort the statute’s punctuation.
The statute includes two intent modifiers for two offenses. An ordinary reading affiliates one modifier with one offense, not two modifiers with one offense and one with the other offense. If the latter were intended, additional punctuation would be required. For example, another “stop”— e.g., a colon or dash — after “knowingly” would indicate that the adverb was intended to modify everything that came after it, instead of only the clause ending before “or.” That is, section 207(c) could have been written so as to penalize any covered former employee
who within one year after such employment has ceased, knowingly—
acts as agent or attorney for, or, with the intent to influence, makes any oral or written communication on behalf of anyone other than the United States, to — [his former agency concerning a particular matter pending before or of direct and substantial interest to that agency].
If the statute were written in this way, the punctuation would make clear that the natural parallelism was to be ignored, and that “knowingly” was to modify both offenses. As it is written, however, the reverse is true.
The appellant’s suggestion that there are numerous plausible interpretations of the statute reflects nothing more than a failed attempt at cute advocacy; the simple truth is that the appellant’s arguments regarding the meaning of section 207(c) make no sense whatsoever on the facts of this case. Indeed, Nofziger is unable to offer any positive explanation for why his reading of the statute — applying the “knowingly” requirement to the communications offense— is plausible grammatically. Nofziger *458seems to believe that the mere assertion of ambiguity is sufficient, without support, to call into question an otherwise clear statute. See, e.g., Reply Brief at 5. Such a suggestion is nonsense.
Because the statute naturally reads to rule out applying “knowingly” to anything but the appearance offense, the appellant must offer concrete, plausible reasons for his charge of ambiguity. Under Nofziger’s approach, parties could always conjure up ambiguity through grammatical contortion. It is difficult to imagine how any statute, criminal or otherwise, could ever withstand judicial scrutiny if courts were to disregard clear mandates of language and to belabor alternative “hidden” meanings.
Thus, in cases in which the rule of lenity has been properly invoked, the lack of clarity in the statute has been striking — unlike in section 207(c). For example, in Liparo-ta, on which the majority relies, the statute at issue, 7 U.S.C. § 2024(b)(1), read, “whoever knowingly uses, transfers, acquires, alters, or possesses [food stamps] in any manner not authorized” was subject to fine and imprisonment. In Liparota, there was no additional modifying requirement (such as the “with intent to influence” requirement of section 207(c)) attached to any other of the enumerated violations to indicate different mens rea requirements for different violations. Because of this, the Court struggled at length with the exact mental state required, ultimately deciding to apply the rule of lenity because
Congress has not explicitly spelled out the mental state required. Although Congress certainly intended by use of the word “knowingly” to require some mental state with respect to some element of the crime defined in § 2024(b)(1), the interpretations proffered by both parties accord with congressional intent to this extent. Beyond this, the words themselves provide little guidance. Either interpretation would accord with ordinary usage.
471 U.S. at 424, 105 S.Ct. at 2087 (last emphasis added).
It is only after this express finding in Liparota that both interpretations comported with “ordinary” usage that the Court could find ambiguity, and thus invoke the rule of lenity. The majority can make no such finding for section 207(c). Indeed, the clarity of section 207(c) is highlighted by contrast to an example of an ambiguous statute cited in Liparota:
What, for instance, does “knowingly” modify in a sentence from a “blue sky” law criminal statute punishing one who “knowingly sells a security without a permit” from the securities commissioner? To be guilty must the seller of a security without a permit know only that what he is doing constitutes a sale, or must he also know that the thing he sells is a security, or must he also know that he has no permit to sell the security he sells? As a matter of grammar the statute is ambiguous; it is not at all clear how far down the sentence the work “knowingly” is intended to travel— whether it modifies “sells,” or “sells a security,” or “sells a security without a permit.” W. LaFave & A. Scott, Criminal Law § 27 (1972).
471 U.S. at 424 n. 7, 105 S.Ct. at 2087-88 n. 7. Section 207(c) simply does not present such a situation. The similarity between the two statutes ends with the “knowingly” adverbial modifier, because the grammar, punctuation and construction of section 207(c) are fundamentally different. As with the statute in Liparota, the hypothetical blue sky law includes no additional adverbial qualifier besides knowingly. In order for there to be any mens rea requirement for “sells” or “sells a security” or “sells a security without a permit,” “knowingly ” must be that qualifier. The point of ambiguity in the hypothetical turns on whether Congress intended any modifier at all to attach — not, as in the case before us, whether one modifier applied to both offenses while another modifier applied to only one.
In order to avoid judicial legislating — or, worse, the potential judicial mayhem that would accompany reading ambiguity into every statute — the Supreme Court has consistently deferred to the “natural” reading compelled by a statute’s punctuation. In United States v. Yermian, 468 U.S. 63, 104 S.Ct. 2936, 82 L.Ed.2d 53 (1984), for exam-*459pie, the Court held that the “knowingly and willfully” requirement of a statute2 did not modify its jurisdictional requirement, because “[a]ny natural reading of § 1001 ... establishes that the terms ‘knowingly and willfully’ modify only the making of ‘false, fictitious or fraudulent statements,’ and not the ... jurisdiction of a federal agency.” Id. at 69, 104 S.Ct. at 2939-40 (emphasis added). Moreover, in a footnote addressing section 1001’s predecessor, the Court again stated that the original statute’s “most natural reading” buttressed the Court’s decision. Id. at 69 n. 6, 104 S.Ct. at 2940 n. 6. The Court also explained that the jurisdictional element of the Yermian statute appeared “in a phrase separate from the prohibited conduct modified by the terms ‘knowingly and willfully,’ ” id. at 69, 104 S.Ct. at 2939, much like the “knowingly” requirement of section 207(c) appears here “in a phrase separate from” the communication offense.
In short, when statutes facially admit of no ambiguity, courts have construed them “naturally” without extensive elaboration. For example, the way that the Court in Yermian justified its reading of the disputed statute is illustrative: the Court simply delineated the relevant grammar and punctuation without explanation. Thus, Nofziger’s attack of the District Court’s attempt to give the words of the statute their “ordinary meaning,” because of the court’s failure to explain “ordinary,” Brief for Appellant at 15, is patently disingenuous. When the language of a statute impels a particular reading, courts have not felt the need to explain obvious meanings. Although I have gone into detail with respect to the meaning of section 207(c), it has been to address the majority’s perceived ambiguity, not my own.
II.
If there were the slightest doubt about the statute’s plain meaning, it would be resolved by a review of the legislative history. As I have already shown, the House version of section 207(c) clearly provided that “knowingly” was the mens rea requirement only for the “appearance offense.” It is undisputed that the Conference Committee adopted the House version of section 207(c), and that this was the version that was enacted into law.
It is also true, as the majority notes, that the Conference Committee adopted the House version of section 207(c) in part to make clear that the subject matter of communication must be of “direct and substantial interest” to the contacted agency in order to fall within the compass of the statute. H.R.REP. NO. 1756, 95th Cong., 2d Sess. 75 (1978), U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 1978, p. 4390. But this fact has no bearing whatsoever on the issue at hand. The Committee could have adopted both the House addition on “direct and substantial interest” and the Senate language on “knowingly.” It chose not to do so and we cannot rewrite the language that was enacted. The simple fact is that the language of section 207(c) clearly indicates that “knowingly” is the mens rea requirement only for the “appearance offense,” while “with the intent to influence” is the mens rea requirement for the “communication offense.”
Given this clear congressional mandate, the majority’s prominent references to the Carter “Administration draft” of section 207(c) are quite surprising. See, e.g., Majority Opinion (“Maj. Op.”) at 443, 448-449. The legislative proposal that President Carter sent to Congress is not the one that was enacted into law. Indeed, the Carter proposal mirrored the Senate version of section 207(c), and this is the version that was expressly rejected in conference. Since President Carter’s proposal was rejected by Congress, I cannot fathom what point the majority seeks to make in its invocation.
III.
Finally, I am constrained to comment on the majority’s characterization of the question here as one of whether “Congress has manifested an unambiguous intent to im*460pose strict liability for the communication offense by limiting the reach of ‘knowingly’ to the appearance offense.” Maj.Op. at 446. This statement evidences a fundamental misunderstanding of the implications of a finding that the statute is facially clear. To say that “knowingly” applies only to the appearance offense does not superimpose a strict liability requirement onto the communication offense.
The overarching purpose of the enactment of section 207(c) was to combat the “revolving-door” syndrome, in which senior government officials become lobbyists who seek to influence their former colleagues and agencies on the strength of personal political clout rather than on the merits of the issue before the agency. Therefore, Congress saw a need to attach a “knowingly” mens rea requirement to the appearance offense: it sought to avoid creating culpability under an implied agency relationship for this offense. This concern is not relevant for the communication offense, which incorporates its own mens rea requirement — that of “with intent to influence.” 3 By enacting the statute thus, Congress avoided imposing strict liability in a criminal context while simultaneously fashioning a more appropriate intent standard for the unique nature of the communication offense.
CONCLUSION
Simply put, there is only one way to read section 207(c). The majority’s attempt to suggest otherwise, as I have elaborated, amounts to little more than “judicial nullification” of a clear congressional enactment. If section 207(c) is ambiguous, I cannot imagine what language courts would read as facially clear. The point made in the Hansen case by our former colleague, now Justice Scalia, is perfectly apt here: Frank-lyn Nofziger “has not ... been surprised by a novel or unexpected interpretation of the law.” 772 F.2d at 949 (citing United States v. Mallas, 762 F.2d 361, 363 (4th Cir.1985)). Accordingly, I cannot comprehend my colleagues’ convoluted attempts to embrace the appellant’s fancied ambiguity, and their concomitant willingness to ignore clear legislative history and engage in overt legislating. Thus, I respectfully dissent.4

. Admittedly, the rule sometimes has been invoked as a buttressing argument when an acquittal was deemed appropriate for other reasons. See, e.g., United States v. McGoff, 831 F.2d 1071, 1095-96 (D.D.Cir.1987) (affirming dismissal of criminal charges as time-barred primarily because compelled by the statute of limitations language, and because even if the statute were ambiguous, court would find for criminal defendant); United States v. Long Cove Seafood, Inc., 582 F.2d 159, 166 n. 4 (2d Cir.1978) (affirming acquittal based on clear language of the larceny statute under which defendant was charged).

. The relevant language of 18 U.S.C. § 1001 provided,
Whoever, in any matter within the jurisdiction of any department or agency of the United States knowingly and willfully ... makes any false, fictitious or fraudulent statements or representations, ... shall be fined_

. Of course, "intending to influence” and “knowingly intending to influence” are different standards, and the former is probably easier to prove in court. Thus, to the extent that the trial court suggested that these two phrases, in practice, represented the same standard, it was in error. However, the fact remains that the trial court correctly applied the "intent to influence” standard — a standard which, despite Nofziger’s claims, creates a sufficient mens rea requirement so as not to offend our notions of justice.

. I find no merit in appellant’s or amicus’ seemingly half-hearted claims that there is insufficient evidence in the record to support a conviction, or that the Ethics in Government Act may be constitutionally infirm. In my view, these claims border on frivolous.