Court Opinion

ID: 9422665
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:03:48.130025+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:22:38.224995
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice White,
whom Mr. Justice Clark, Mr. Justice Harlan and Mr. Justice Stewart join,
dissenting.
Petitioner is charged with being an alien who after entry had become a member of the Communist Party, and thus subject to deportation under § 241 (a)(6)(C) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952. Hearings were held from April through July 1956, at which the. United States introduced testimony of two witnesses as to petitioner’s affiliation with Communist Party units in Los Angeles from 1949 to 1951, but petitioner refused to answer any question concerning his membership in the *481Communist Party. The special inquiry officer found petitioner deportable under § 241 (a)(6)(C) and . the .Board of Immigration Appeals dismissed the petitioner’s appeal on November 14, 1957, holding that the evidence established a prima facie case of membership which petitioner made no attempt to rebut. On January 13, 1958, after this Court’s decision in Rowoldt v. Perfetto, 355 U. S. 115, the Board of Immigration Appeals reconsidered petitioner’s case in light of Rowoldt. Noting that, unlike the petitioner in Rowoldt, petitioner here had offered no evidence which would upset the normal inference of political awareness flowing from his' two-year association with the Communist Party at a time when the purposes and activities of the Party were a matter of public record, the Board granted petitioner’s request to reopen the proceedings in order that he might present testimony which would bring him within Rowoldt. At the reopened hearings, however, petitioner offered no evidence but merely introduced a statement asserting that the existing record did not establish meaningful membership and suggesting that the Government present additional evidence. The special inquiry officer, after reexamining the record, adhered to his original conclusion that the evidence showed voluntary, meaningful membership in the Communist Party. On appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals, that body, after examining the record again, reaffirmed its decision that the testimony established meaningful membership within the Rowoldt case. Petitioner filed a petition for declaratory and injunctive relief in the District Court to review the deportation order and, after still another examination of the order and the supporting record, the court granted the Board’s motion for summary judgment. The Court of Appeals held that “the findings of the Board that [petitioner’s] Party membership was meaningful is established by the record,” 109 U. S. App. D. C. 267, 271, 286 F. 2d 824, 828, *482and affirmed. In a petition for certiorari to this Court, petitioner argued that the evidence was insufficient to support the deportation order, but certiorari was denied, 365 U. S. 871.
Petitioner thereupon commenced the proceedings which bring the case before us today. He filed a motion to reopen the proceedings before the Board of Immigration Appeals on the ground that he should be permitted to testify that he never personally advocated the overthrow of the Government by force and violence. While not disputing that an inquiry into whether an alien personally advocated violent overthrow is immaterial in deportation proceedings, Galvan v. Press, 347 U. S. 522, petitioner nonetheless insisted upon introducing the testimony because, as he read the opinion of the Court of Appeals, 109 U. S. App. D. C. 267, 286 F. 2d 824, proof that an alien did not personally espouse the cause of violent overthrow of the Government would save him from deportation under § 241 (a)(6)(C). The Board of Immigration Appeals declined to reopen the proceedings again, because in its view the Court of Appeals did not announce the rule on which petitioner relied and because Galvan v. Press and Rowoldt v. Perfetto so clearly held that proof of such a personal commitment to the tenet of violent overthrow was not required for deportation proceedings. After reviewing the record for the third time, the Board concluded that “there is uncontradicted testimony to show that a voluntary meaningful membership existed.” Petitioner filed his second action for judicial review, contending that the refusal to reopen the hearings so that he could submit his testimony was “erroneous, unconstitutional and illegal.” The District Court, finding no abuse of discretion in the Board’s refusal to reopen the proceedings, declined to disturb the. deportation order: The Court of Appeals affirmed, the case was brought here and the Court now reverses. I respectfully dissent.
*483First. The issue tendered to the District Court was whether the Board of Immigration Appeals should have reopened the record to allow petitioner to present evidence of the kind stated in the affidavit attached^ to the complaint. Both the District Court and the Court of Appeals upheld the Board’s' refusal to reopen- the proceedings. The Court here does not disagree, nor does it suggest that the evidence which petitioner sought to add to the record was in any way material to the question of deport-ability under the statute. Instead, it decides that the record does not show meaningful or voluntary membership, thus resurrecting an issue supposedly settled in previous proceedings in this case, an issue which the courts below time after time decided contrary to the view now taken by this.Court and an issue which the Court itself previously declined to review by certiorari. A wise use of the Court’s powers would confine decision here to the issue presented to the District Court, rather than afford repeated review of previously decided matters and so call into question the integrity of the administrative and judicial process.
Second. Shaughnessy v. Pedreiro, 349 U. S. 48, held that an alien could, by bringing an action for declaratory judgment and injunction, secure judicial review of a “final” order of deportation under § 10 of the Administrative Procedure Act. This is such an action, as the complaint expressly states, and affirmance of the order of deportation is required in this case unless the administrative findings are not supported by substantial evidence. Although the order must “be set aside when the record before a Court . . . clearly precludes the Board’s decision from being justified by a fair estimate of the worth of the testimony of witnesses or its informed judgment on matters within its special competence or both,” review under § 10 does not “mean that even as to matters not requiring expertise a court may displace the Board’s *484choice between, two fairly conflicting views, even though the court would justifiably have.made a different choice had the matter been before it de novo.” Universal Camera Corp. v. Labor Board, 340 U. S. 474, 488, 490. “It is . . . immaterial that the facts permit the drawing of diverse inferences. The- [agency] alone is charged with the duty of initially selecting the inference which seems most reasonable and [its] choice, if otherwise sustainable, may not be disturbed by a reviewing court.” Cardillo v. Liberty Mutual Co., 330 U. S. 469, 478.
If Galvan v. Press and Rowoldt v. Perfetto are not to be overruled, or substantially modified, neither of which petitioner has requested here, and if the substantial evidence rule is not tó be abandoned, there is ample basis on this record to sustain the finding of voluntary, meaningful membership. Petitioner was a regular dues-paying member of the Party, at least from 1949 to 1951, and there is no evidence that his membership terminated at the latter date. When the Party was reorganized into smaller units, petitioner was transferred to a flew group and he was seen 15 times (“it could be 15, it could be more”) at meetings of the unit which were restricted to Party members. “He was an official of the club because he attended a few executive meetings of the Forty-Fifth,” at one of which he was seen by the government witness. This meeting was “either organizational or to- form an agenda for the regular meeting.” Attendance at executive meetings was restricted “to Party members and probably officials of the club.” At one time petitioner was transferred out of the Mexican Concentration Club “for some other job.” Petitioner was also known to have attended at least one Party convention, attendance at which was restricted to Party members — “you had to face the panel and give your club, your position of that club, and be identified by members that were on the, on this panel, before you were admitted.” At the conventions, *485“they would have discussions on what was going on in the Party, and what drives were coming up.”
These facts are sufficient basis for the Board’s finding of voluntary, meaningful membership.* After regular attendance at Party meetings and functions, and regular financial support for its activities, it is rather fanciful to believe petitioner was still unaware of the political nature of the Communist Party. It is doubtful that the meetings were so ineptly run or structured.
To be sure, facts purporting to show voluntary membership can be explained away and rendered meaningless by further facts as in Rowoldt. But here petitioner did not testify and did not attempt to characterize or to limit the significance of his association with the Party. In the circumstances “it is enough that the alien joined the Party, aware that he was joining an organization known as the Communist Party which operates as a distinct and active political organization, and that he did so of his own free will. A fair reading of the legislation requires that this scope be given to what Congress enacted . . . .” Galvan v. Press, 347 U. S., at 528.
I would therefore affirm the repeated holdings of the courts below, made after several thorough examinations of the record. “This is not the place to review a conflict *486of evidence nor to reverse a Court of Appeals because were we in its place we would find the record tilting one way rather than the other, though fair-minded judges could find it tilting either way.” Labor Board v. Pittsburgh S. S. Co., 340 U. S. 498, 503. “We do no more on the issue of insubstantiality than decide that the Court of Appeals has made a ‘fair assessment’ of the record.” Federal Trade Comm’n v. Standard Oil Co., 355 U. S. 396,401 ; Peurifoy v. Commissioner, 358 U. S. 59, 61; Labor Board v. Pittsburgh S. S. Co., 340 U. S. 498, 502. “This Court will intervene only in what ought to be the rare instance when the standard appears to have been misapprehended or grossly misapplied.” Universal Camera Corp. v. Labor Board, 340 U. S. 474, 491.

 The Court is concerned about the insufficiency of the “direct” and “indirect” evidence of awareness and participation. The record, though, contains “direct" evidence from Scarletto, who saw petitioner at Party meetings and at a convention, and who testified that at such conventions “they would have discussions on what was going on in the Party.” Elorriaga stated that he saw petitioner at an executive meeting “either organizational or to form an agenda for the regular meeting.” Both witnesses testified “directly” that petitioner was a dues-paying member and attended Party meetings. To me this uncontradicted testimony /plainly is “direct” evidence that petitioner was aware of the distinct and active political nature of the Communist Party or at the very least sufficient “indirect” evidence from which an inference of meaningful membership could be drawn.