Court Opinion

ID: 9421935
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:00:34.917211+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:22:33.217278
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Black,
whom Mr. Justice Douglas joins,
dissenting.
Section 1028.1 of the California Code, as here applied, provides that any California public employee who refuses to incriminate himself when asked to do so by a Congressional Committee “shall be suspended and dismissed from his employment in the manner provided by law.” The Fifth Amendment, which is a part of the Bill of Rights, provides that no person shall be compelled to incriminate (“to be a witness against”) himself. The petitioner, Globe, an employee of the State of California, appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee of the United States Congress and claimed this federal constitutional privilege. • California promptly discharged him, as the Court’s opinion says, for “insubordination and violation of § 1028.1 of the Code.” The “insubordination and violation” consisted exclusively of Globe’s refusal to testify before the Congressional Committee; a ground for his refusal was that his answers might incriminate him. It is beyond doubt that the State took Globe’s job away from him only because he claimed his privilege under the Federal Constitution.
*10Here, then, is a plain conflict between the Federal Constitution and § 1028.1 of the California Code. The Federal Constitution told Globe he could, without penalty, refuse to incriminate himself before any arm of the Federal Government; California, however, has deprived him of his job solely because he exercised this federal constitutional privilege. In giving supremacy to the California law, I think the Court approves a plain violation of Article VI of the Constitution of the United States which makes that Constitution “the supreme Law of the Land . . . any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.” I also think that this discharge under state law is a violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment in its authentic historical sense: that a State may not encroach upon the individual rights of people except for violation of a law that is valid under the “law of the land.” “Law of the land” of necessity includes the supreme law, the Constitution itself.
The basic purpose of the Bill of Rights was to protect individual liberty against governmental procedures that the Framers thought should not be used. That great purpose can be completely frustrated by holdings like this. I would hold that no State can put any kind of penalty on any person for claiming a privilege authorized by the Federal Constitution. The Court’s holding to the contrary here does not bode well for individual liberty in America.