Court Opinion

ID: 9419514
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 22:49:53.007326+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:22:18.702497
License: Public Domain

Me. Justice Douglas,
with whom Me. Justice Black and Me. Justice Reed concur, dissenting:
The question is not whether stuffing of the ballot box should be punished. Kentucky has made that reprehensible practice a crime. See Ky. Rev. Stat. 1942, § 124.220; Commonwealth v. Anderson, 151 Ky. 537, 152 S. W. 552; Tackett v. Commonwealth, 285 Ky. 83, 146 S. W. 2d 937. Cf. Ky. Rev. Stat. 1942, § 124.180 (8). And it is a crime under Kentucky law whether it occurs in an election for state officials or for United States Senator. Id., § 124.280 (2). The question here is whether the general language of § 19 of the Criminal Code should be construed to superimpose a federal crime on this state crime.
Under § 19 of the Enforcement Act of May 31,1870 (16 Stat. 144) the stuffing of this ballot box would have been a federal offense.1 That provision was a part of the compre*391hensive “reconstruction” legislation passed after the Civil War. It was repealed by the Act of February 8, 1894, 28 Stat. 36 — an Act which was designed to restore control of election frauds to the States. The Committee Report (H. Rep. No. 18, 53d Cong., 1st Sess., p. 7) which sponsored the repeal stated:
“Let every trace of the reconstruction measures be wiped from the statute books; let the States of this great Union understand that the elections are in their own hands, and if there be fraud, coercion, or force used they will be the first to feel it. Responding to a universal sentiment throughout the country for greater purity in elections many of our States have enacted laws to protect the voter and to purify the ballot. These, under the guidance of State officers, have worked efficiently, satisfactorily, and beneficently; and if these Federal statutes are repealed that sentiment will receive an impetus which, if the cause *392still exists, will carry such enactments in every State in the Union.”
This Court now writes into the law what Congress struck out 50 years ago. The Court now restores federal control in a domain where Congress decided the States should have exclusive jurisdiction. I think if such an intrusion on historic states’ rights is to be made, it should be done by the legislative branch of government. I cannot believe that Congress intended to preserve by the general language of § 19 the same detailed federal controls over elections which were contained in the much despised “reconstruction” legislation.
The Court, of course, does not go quite that far. It recognizes that bribery of voters is not a federal offense. United States v. Bathgate, 246 U. S. 220. But he who bribes voters and purchases their votes corrupts the electoral process and dilutes my vote as much as he who stuffs the ballot box. If one is a federal crime under § 19,1 fail to see why the other is not also.
Congress has ample power to legislate in this field and to protect the election of its members from fraud and corruption. United States v. Classic, 313 U. S. 299. I would leave to Congress any extension of federal control over elections. I would restrict § 19 to those cases where a voter is deprived of his right to east a ballot or to have his ballot counted. United States v. Mosley, 238 U. S. 383. That is the “right or privilege” the “free exercise” of which is protected by § 19. If it is said that that distinction is not a logical one, my answer is that it is nevertheless a practical one. Once we go beyond that point, logic would require us to construe § 19 so as to make federal offenses out of all frauds which corrupt the electoral process, distort the count, or dilute the honest vote. The vast interests involved in that proposal emphasize the legislative quality of an expansive construction of § 19. We should leave that expansion to Congress.
*393That view is supported by another consideration. The double jeopardy provision of the Fifth Amendment does not bar a federal prosecution even though a conviction based on the same acts has been obtained under state law. Jerome v. United States, 318 U. S. 101, 105, and cases cited. Therefore when it is urged that Congress has created offenses which traditionally have been left for state action and which duplicate state crimes, we should be reluctant to expand the defined federal offenses “beyond the clear requirements of the terms of the statute.” Id. I know of no situation where that principle could be more appropriately recognized than in the field of the elections where there is comprehensive state regulation.

 That section provided:
“That if at any election for representative or delegate in the Congress of the United States any person shall knowingly personate and vote, or attempt to vote, in the name of any other person, whether living, dead, or fictitious; or vote more than once at the same election for any candidate for the same office; or vote at a place where he may not be lawfully entitled to vote; or vote without having a lawful right to vote; or do any unlawful act to secure a right or an opportunity to vote for himself or any other person; or by force, threat, menace, intimidation, bribery, reward, or offer, or promise thereof, or otherwise unlawfully prevent any qualified voter of any State of the United States of America, or of any Territory thereof, from *391freely exercising the right of suffrage, or by any such means induce any voter to refuse to exercise such right; or compel or induce by any such means, or otherwise, any officer of an election in any such State or Territory to receive a vote from a person not legally qualified or entitled to vote; or interfere in any manner with any officer of said elections in the discharge of his duties; or by any of such means, or other unlawful means, induce any officer of an election, or officer whose duty it is to ascertain, announce, or declare the result of any such election, or give or make any certificate, document, or evidence in relation thereto, to violate or refuse to comply with his duty, or any law regulating the same; or knowingly and wilfully receive the vote of any person not entitled to vote, or refuse to receive the vote of any person entitled to vote; or aid, counsel, procure, or advise any such voter, person, or officer to do any act hereby made a crime, or to omit to do any duty the omission of which is hereby made a crime, or attempt to do so, every such person shall be deemed guilty of a crime, and shall for such crime be liable to prosecution in any court of the United States of competent jurisdiction, and, on conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars, or by imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years, or both, in the discretion of the court, and shall pay the costs of prosecution.”