Court Opinion

ID: 9422052
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:01:01.952539+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:22:33.976359
License: Public Domain

MR. Chief Justice Warren,
with whom Mr. Justice Black and Mr. Justice Whittaker join,
dissenting.
If the Court’s opinion reflects all that there is to this case, it is astonishing that it has taken so many years for the federal judiciary to loose itself from the medieval chains of the husband-wife conspiracy doctrine. The problem, as the Court sees it, is almost absurdly uncomplicated : The basis for the notion that husband and wife are not subject to a conspiracy charge is that man and wife are one; but we know that man and wife are two, not one; therefore, there is no basis for the notion that husband and wife are not subject to a conspiracy charge. I submit that this simplistic an approach will not do.
The Court apparently does not assert that if the husband-wife conspiracy doctrine was widely accepted when the conspiracy statute was passed in 1867, 14 Stat. 484, and therefore was presumably within Congress’ understanding of the reach of that statute, nonetheless this Court should now reject the rule because it finds it nonsensical. Instead, the Court’s position is that
“It would be an idle parade of learning to document the statement that these common-law disabilities [of women] were extensively swept away in our different state of society, both by legislation and adjudication, long before the originating conspiracy Act of 1867 was passed.”
But, however rapidly nineteenth century jurisprudence moved toward a recognition of the individuality of women in other areas, it is wholly inaccurate to imply that the law *56of conspiracy changed apace. In fact, the earliest case repudiating the husband-wife doctrine which the Government has been able to cite is Dalton v. People, 68 Colo. 44, 189 P. 37, which was decided, as the Government puts it, “[a]s early as 1920.” And if the doctrine is an anachronism today, as the Court says, its unusual hardiness is demonstrated by the fact that the decision of the Court represents a departure from the general rule which prevails today in the English-speaking world. As recently as 1957, the Privy Council approved the husband-wife doctrine,1 and other Commonwealth courts are in accord.2 For American decisions, see Annot., 4 A. L. R. 266, 71 A. L. R. 1116, 46 A. L. R. 2d 1275.
Thus it seems clear that if the 1867 statute is to be construed to reflect Congress’ intent as it was in 1867, the Court’s decision is erroneous. And I believe that we must focus upon that intent, inasmuch as there is no indication that Congress meant to change the law by the 1948 legislation which re-enacted without material variation the old conspiracy statute.3 Surely when a rule of law is well established in the common law and is part of the legislative purpose when a relevant statute is passed, that rule should not be rejected by this Court in the absence of an explicit subsequent repudiation of it by Congress.4 *57Consequently, I would be compelled to dissent whether or not I believed the rule to be supported by reason.
But more, I cannot agree that the rule is without justification. Inasmuch as Mr. Justice Holmes’ observation that it is “revolting” to follow a doctrine only “from blind imitation of the past” is hardly novel, the tenacious adherence of the judiciary to the husband-wife conspiracy doctrine indicates to me that the rule may be predicated upon underlying policies unconnected with problems of women’s suffrage or capacity to sue. The “definitive answer” to the question posed by this case is not to be found in a breezy aphorism from the collected papers of Mr. Justice Holmes, for “[gjeneral propositions do not decide concrete cases.”5
It is not necessary to be wedded to fictions to approve the husband-wife conspiracy doctrine, for one of the dangers which that doctrine averts is the prosecution and conviction of persons for “conspiracies” which Congress never meant to be included within the statute. A wife, simply by virtue of the intimate life she shares with her husband, might easily perform acts that would technically be sufficient to involve her in a criminal conspiracy with him, but which might be far removed from the arm’s-*58length agreement typical of that crime. It is not a medieval mental quirk or an attitude “unnourished by sense” to believe that husbands and wives should not be subjected to such a risk, or that such a possibility should not be permitted to endanger the confidentiality of the marriage relationship. While it is easy enough to ridicule Hawkins’ pronouncement in Pleas of the Crown6 from a metaphysical point of view, the concept of the “oneness” of a married couple may reflect an abiding belief that the communion between husband and wife is such that their actions are not always to be regarded by the criminal law as if there were no marriage.
By making inroads in the name of law enforcement into the protection which Congress has afforded to the marriage relationship, the Court today continues in the path charted by the recent decision in Wyatt v. United States, 362 U. S. 525, where the Court held that, under the circumstances of that case, a wife could be compelled to testify against her husband over her objection. One need not waver in his belief in virile law enforcement to insist that there are other things in American life which are also of great importance, and to which even law enforcement must accommodate itself. One of these is the solidarity and the confidential relationship of marriage. The Court’s opinion dogmatically asserts that the husband-wife conspiracy doctrine does not in fact protect this relationship, and that hence the doctrine “enthrone [s] an unreality into a rule of law.” I am not easily persuaded that a rule accepted by so many people for so many centuries can be so lightly dismissed. But in any event, I submit that the power to depose belongs to Congress, not to this Court. I dissent.

 Mawji v. Reginam, 41 Crim. App. R. 69, 1 All Eng. Rep. [1957] 385.

 See Kowbel v. The Queen, 110 Can. Crim. Cas. 47 (1954); The King v. McKechie [1926] N. Z. L. R. 1.

 18 U. S. C. § 371.

 “There are no judgments in Canada, dealing with this particular matter, but I think it is well settled that since many centuries, it has been the law of England that a husband and wife cannot alone conspire to commit an indictable offence. These views have been expressed during over six centuries, and I would be slow to believe that the hesitations of a few modem writers could justify us to brush *57aside what has always been considered as the existing law. . . . It may very well be amended by legislative intervention, but as long as it is not, it must be applied.” Kowbel v. The Queen, 110 Can. Crim. Cas. 47, 52 (1954). (Taschereau, J.)
“Had it been the intention of Parliament to abolish the common law defence with which we are concerned it would be expected that plain words dealing expressly with such defence would have been used .... I can find nothing in the general words [of the statute] to warrant imputing to Parliament the intention of taking away this ancient common law defence of a husband and wife . . . .” Id., at 54-55. (Cartwright, J.)

 Lochner v. New York, 198 U. S. 45, 76 (dissenting opinion).

 Hawkins, 1 Pleas of the Crown (4th ed. 1762), 192.