Court Opinion

ID: 9420428
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 22:54:27.405414+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T16:46:19.198359
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Jackson,
whom
Mr. Justice Black and Mr. Justice Frankfurter join, dissenting.
I do not question the constitutional power of Congress to authorize immigration authorities to turn back from our gates any alien or class of aliens. But I do not find that Congress has authorized an abrupt and brutal exclusion of the wife of an American citizen without a hearing.
Congress held out a promise of liberalized admission to alien brides, taken unto themselves by men serving in or honorably discharged from our armed services abroad, as the Act, set forth in the Court's opinion, indicates. The petitioning husband is honorably discharged and remained in Germany as a civilian employee. Our military authorities abroad required their permission before marriage. The Army in Germany is not without a vigilant and security-conscious intelligence service. This woman was employed by our European Command and her record is not only without blemish, but is highly praised by her superiors. The marriage of this alien woman to this veteran was approved by the Commanding General at Frankfurt-on-Main.
Now this American citizen is told he cannot bring his wife to the United States, but he will not be told why. *551He must abandon his bride to live in his own country or forsake his country to live with his bride.
So he went to court and sought a writ of habeas corpus, which we never tire of citing to Europe as the unanswerable evidence that our free country permits no arbitrary official detention. And the Government tells the Court that not even a court can find out why the girl is excluded. But it says we must find that Congress authorized this treatment of war brides and, even if we cannot get any reasons for it, we must say it is legal; security requires it.
Security is like liberty in that many are the crimes committed in its name. The menace to the security of this country, be it great as it may, from this girl’s admission is as nothing compared to the menace to free institutions inherent in procedures of this pattern. In the name of j; security the police state justifies its arbitrary oppressions on evidence that is secret, because security might be j prejudiced if it were brought to light in hearings. The plea that evidence of guilt must be secret is abhorrent to j free men, because it provides a cloak for the malevolent, the misinformed, the meddlesome, and the corrupt to play the role of informer undetected and uncorrected. Cf. In re Oliver, 333 U. S. 257, 268.
I am sure the officials here have acted from a sense of duty, with full belief in their lawful power, and no doubt upon information which, if it stood the test of trial, would justify the order of exclusion. But not even they know whether it would stand this test. And anyway, as I have said before, personal confidence in the officials involved does not excuse a judge for sanctioning a procedure that is dangerously wrong in principle. Dissent in Bowles v. United States, 319 U. S. 33, 37.
Congress will have to use more explicit language than any yet cited before I will agree that it has authorized an administrative officer to break up the family of an *552American citizen or force him to keep his wife by becoming an exile. Likewise, it will have to be much more explicit before I can agree that it authorized a finding of serious misconduct against the wife of an American citizen without notice of charges, evidence of guilt and a chance to meet it.
I should direct the Attorney General either to produce his evidence justifying exclusion or to admit Mrs. Knauff to the country.