Court Opinion

ID: 9427619
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:21:24.599959+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:08.499542
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Stevens,
with whom Mr. Justice Stewart joins,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
The Court holds that United States v. Brewster, 408 U. S. 501, and United States v. Johnson, 383 U. S. 169, preclude the Government from introducing evidence of a legislative act by a Member of Congress. I agree that those cases do prevent the prosecution from attempting to prove that a legislative act was performed. I do not believe, however, that they require rejection of evidence that merely refers to legislative acts when that evidence is not offered for the purpose of proving the legislative act itself.
In Johnson, the Court held that a Member of Congress could not be prosecuted for conspiracy against the United States based on his preparation and delivery of an improperly motivated speech in the House of Representatives. After noting that the attention given to the speech was not merely “an incidental part of the Government’s case,” but rather was “an intensive judicial inquiry” into the speech’s substance and motivation, id., at 176-177, the Court held that the prosecu*495tion violated the express language of the Speech or Debate Clause and the policies that underlie it. The Court carefully emphasized, however, that its decision was limited to a case of that character and “does not touch a prosecution which . . . does not draw in question the legislative acts of the defendant member of Congress or his motives for performing them.” Id., at 185.
In Brewster, the Court held that the Speech or Debate Clause did not bar prosecution of a former Senator for receiving money in return for being influenced in the performance of a legislative act. The Court read Johnson as allowing a prosecution of a Member of Congress so long as the Government’s case does not rely on legislative acts or the motivation for such acts. It reasoned that Brewster was not being prosecuted for the performance of a legislative act, but rather for soliciting or agreeing to take money with knowledge that the donor intended to compensate him for an official act. Whether the Senator ever performed the official act was irrelevant.
As a practical matter,. of course, it is clear that evidence relating to a legislator’s motivation for accepting a bribe will also be probative of his intent in committing the official act for which the bribe was solicited or paid. Nonetheless, the Court made clear in Brewster that inquiries into the legislator’s motivation in accepting payment are not barred by /ohnson’s proscription against inquiry into legislative motivation. “[A]n inquiry into the purpose of a bribe,” the Brewster Court held, “ 'does not draw in question the legislative acts of the defendant member of Congress or his motives for performing them.’ ” 408 U. S., at 526, quoting Johnson, supra, at 185. Thus, so long as the Government’s case does not depend upon the legislator’s motivation in committing an official act, inquiries into his motivation in accepting a bribe — which obviously may be revealing as to both the existence of legislative acts and the motivation for *496them — are permissible under the Speech or Debate Clause, as interpreted in Brewster.
Brewster’s recognition of this distinction, in my judgment, provides strong support for the Government’s argument in this case. Here, the Government is seeking to introduce written and testimonial evidence as to Helstoski’s motivation in soliciting and accepting bribes. Some of this evidence makes reference to past or future legislative acts for which payment is being sought or given. Obviously, this evidence, to the extent it is probative of Helstoski’s intent in accepting payment, is an important and legitimate part of the Government’s case against the former Congressman. Whether or not he ever committed the legislative acts is wholly irrelevant to the Government’s proof, and inquiry into that subject is prohibited by Johnson and Brewster. But the mere fact that legislative acts are mentioned does not, in my view, require that otherwise relevant and admissible evidence be excluded. The acts may or may not have been performed; the statements in the letters may be true or false. The existence of the statements does not establish that legislative acts were performed; nor does it constitute inquiry into those acts. To be sure, such statements may reveal some information about the performance of legislative acts and the legislator’s motivation in conducting official duties. However, that is also true of other evidence making no reference to specific past legislative acts, but rather dealing only with promises of future performance or less specific commitments to legislative action. Brewster establishes that such evidence is admissible in bribery prosecutions because it does not draw in question the legislative act itself or its motivation. The admissibility line should be based on the purpose of the offer rather than the specificity of the reference. So long as the jury is instructed that it should not consider the references as proof of legislative acts, and so long as no inquiry is made with respect to the motivations for such acts, Brewster does not bar the intro*497duction of evidence simply because reference is made to legislative acts.*
Indeed, I think it important to emphasize that the majority today does not read Brewster to foreclose the introduction of any evidence making reference to legislative acts. The Court holds that evidence referring only to acts to be performed in the future may be admitted into evidence. Ante, at 490. The Court explains this holding by noting that a promise to perform a legislative act in the future is not itself a legislative act. But it is equally true that the solicitation of a bribe which contains a self-laudatory reference to past performance is not itself a legislative act. Whether the legislator refers to past or to future performance, his statement will be probative of his intent in accepting payment and, in *498either event, may incidentally shed light on the performance and motivation of legislative acts. The proper remedy, in my judgment, is not automatic inadmissibility for past references and automatic admissibility for future references. Rather, drawing on the language of the Constitution itself, the test should require the trial court to analyze the purpose of the prosecutor’s questioning. If the evidentiary references to legislative acts are merely incidental to a proper purpose, the judge should admit the evidence and instruct the jury as to its limited relevance. The Constitution mandates that legislative acts “shall not be questioned”; it does not say they shall not be mentioned.
The Court properly notes that the Government has no valid complaint simply because application of the Speech or Debate Clause renders some prosecution of Members of Congress “difficult.” Ante, at 488. But I do not believe the Clause was intended to make such prosecution virtually impossible. In light of the Court’s holding in Brewster that bribery prosecutions are permissible, it is illogical to adopt rules of evidence that will allow a Member of Congress effectively to immunize himself from conviction simply by inserting references to past legislative acts in all communications, thus rendering all such evidence inadmissible. Because I believe the exclusionary rule the Court applies today affords greater protection than is necessary to fulfill the mission of the Speech or Debate Clause, I respectfully dissent to the limited extent indicated above.

In reaching this conclusion, I have not overlooked the language in Brewster, relied upon by respondent, that “Johnson precludes any showing of how [Brewster] acted, voted, or decided.” 408 U. S., at 527. Taken out of context, that language would appear to support Helstoski’s claim that all' references to legislative action are inadmissible. When placed in its proper context, however, it clearly does not.
The quoted statement was made with respect to the dissent’s argument that criminal prosecution should not be permitted since the indictment charged the offense as being in part linked to Brewster’s “action, vote and decision on postage rate legislation.” In response, the Court pointed out that, while this was true, “[t]he Government, as we have noted, need not 'prove any specific act, speech, debate, or decision to establish a violation of the statute under which appellee was indicted. To accept the arguments of the dissent would be to retreat from the Court’s position in Johnson that a Member may be convicted if no showing of legislative act is required.” Id., at 528 (emphasis added). When placed in this context, I think it clear that the statement relied upon by respondent should be read only as establishing — as Johnson itself held, and as the Brewster Court read Johnson — that a Member of Congress may not be prosecuted if proof of a specific legislative act would be required as an element of the Government’s case. The recognition by the Court today that evidence referring to future legislative actions is admissible, see ante, at 490, itself is a rejection of the broad reading respondent attaches to “any showing.”