Court Opinion

ID: 9421373
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 22:58:01.36275+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:22:29.856306
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Frankfurter,
whom Mr. Justice Harlan joins,
concurring.
To whatever extent history may confirm Lord Acton’s dictum that power tends to corrupt, such a doctrine of fear can hardly serve as a test, under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, of a particular exercise of a State’s legislative power. And so, the constitutionality of a particular statute, expressive of a State’s view of desirable policy for dealing with one of *336the rudimentary concerns of society — the prevention of fires and the ascertainment of their causes — and directed towards a particular situation, cannot be determined by deriving a troupe of hobgoblins from the assumption that such a particularized exercise of power would justify an unlimited, abusive exercise of power.
If the Ohio legislation were directed explicitly or by obvious design toward secret inquisition of those suspected of arson, we would have a wholly different situation from the one before us. This is not a statute directed to the examination of suspects. It is a statute authorizing inquiry by the chief guardian of a community against the hazards of fire into the causes of fires. To be sure, it does not preclude the possibility that a suspect might turn up among those to be questioned by the Fire Marshal. But the aim of the statute is the expeditious and expert ascertainment of the causes of fire. The Fire Marshal is not a prosecutor, though he may, like others, serve as a witness for the prosecution. In various proceedings, as for instance under some workmen’s compensation laws, the presence of lawyers is deemed not conducive to the economical and thorough ascertainment of the facts. The utmost devotion to one’s profession and the fullest recognition of the great role of lawyers in the evolution of a free society cannot lead one to erect as a constitutional principle that no administrative inquiry can be had in camera unless a lawyer be allowed to attend.
The assumption that as a normal matter such an inquiry carries with it deprivation of some rights of a citizen assumes inevitable misuse of authority. For good reasons, and certainly for constitutional purposes, the contrary assumption must be entertained. The potential danger most feared is that it will invade the privilege against self-incrimination in States where it is constitutionally recognized. But that privilege is amply safeguarded by the decision of the Supreme Court of Ohio in this case. *337We are not justified in invalidating this Ohio statute on the assumption that people called before the Fire Marshal would not be aware of their privilege not to respond to questions the answers to which may tend to incriminate. At a time when this privilege has attained the familiarity of the comic strips, the assumption of ignorance about the privilege by witnesses called before the Fire Marshal is too far-fetched an assumption on which to invalidate legislation.
What has been said disposes of the suggestion that, because this statute relating to a general administrative, non-prosecutorial inquiry into the causes of fire is sustained, it would follow that secret inquisitorial powers given to a District Attorney would also have to be sustained. The Due Process Clause does not disregard vital differences. If it be said that these are all differences of degree, the decisive answer is that recognition of differences of degree is inherent in due regard for due process. We are admonished from time to time not to adjudicate on the basis of fear of foreign totalitarianism. Equally, so should we not be guided in the exercise of our reviewing power over legislation by fear of totalitarianism in our own country.
For these reasons I join the opinion of the Court.