Court Opinion

ID: 9442473
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 18:49:18.566869+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:29:06.547510
License: Public Domain

CLARK, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
To one schooled in Anglo-Saxon traditions of legal decorum, the resistance pressed by these appellants on various occasions to the rulings of the trial judge necessarily appears abominable. Yet such natural emotional reaction does not of itself prove that they should be imprisoned without a hearing weeks or months after the events. For the law must both appear and be inexorable rather than vindictive; and the constitutional course of due process requires that conviction and sentence come only after orderly hearing upon announced charges and full opportunity to the accused to defend themselves. True, there is a single exception resting on necessity and common sense. If there are breaches of courtroom behavior to the point of preventing the proper functioning of the court, the judge has the authority to take the necessary steps to secure order. But if the difficulty does not require so drastic stepslias indeed been surmounted without resort to them — and the question is one only of punishment, as retribution and example, then the ordinary requirements of due process must be satisfied. For the person accused of a criminal contempt, like any other accused, is entitled to the opportunity to exculpate himself, so1 far as his evidence permits, before being sentenced to imprisonment. Hence the immediate issue in this case is not at all as between appropriate punishment and complete immunity from penalty; it is as to the manner in which the question of guilt or punishment can be .legally and appropriately tried, or more broadly the course which will best preserve at once the rights of the accused and the dignity of the law in accordance with the highest standards of American justice.
The distinction I have just indicated between summary action for contempt to permit the court to function and the more leisurely but determined course of hearing to settle the punishment for violation of court orders is quite thoroughly settled in the cases. Indeed, it has been vigorously restated only recently by the Supreme Court. “Except for a narrowly limited category of contempts, due process of law as explained in the Cooke case requires that one charged with contempt of court be advised of the charges against him, have a reasonable opportunity to meet them by way of defense or explanation, have the right to be represented by counsel, and have a chance to testify and call other witnesses in his behalf, either by way of defense or explanation. The narrow exception to these due process requirements includes only charges of misconduct, in open court, in the presence of the judge, which disturbs the court’s business, where all of the essential elements of the misconduct are under the eye of the court, are actually observed by the court, and where immediate punishment is essential to prevent ‘demoralization of the court’s authority’ before the public. * * * The right to be heard in open court *464before one is condemned is too valuable to be whittled away under the guise of ‘demoralization of the court’s authority.’ ” In re Oliver, 333 U.S. 257, 275, 278, 68 S.Ct. 499, 500, 92 L.Ed. 682. Thus, too, the recent Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, while recognizing the summary contempt power, indicate the extraordinary character of that remedy and prescribe elaborate safeguards of notice and hearing before punishment for the usual contempt. Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, rule 42, 18 U.S.C.A.
Against this I find no countervailing precedent to negative the conclusion that this is a unique judgment of summary contempt. This is shown the clearer by considering the time intervals between the specific acts charged and the summary imposition of sentence. In some cases the acts occurred more than eight months before judgment and involved occurrences before the opening of the trial proper. ■ On the other hand, the last acts charged against the lawyer appellants were respectively over four months, over two months, a month and a half, a month, and a month before the sentencing date.1 The contrast 'between these time intervals and the extremely short periods of even the more drastic cases relied on is so great as to point its own moral.2
In justice to the trial judge it must be pointed out that he acted upon a perfectly rational theory, namely, that of a conspiracy to obstruct justice continuing up to the very end. If such a conspiracy in fact existed and thus continued, then the punishment was deserved and was indeed mild. But notwithstanding the provocation to the judge thus to conclude, this is not a matter of complete demonstration from acts alone. At the 'basis of any conspiracy is the intent of the parties; if the court refuses to accept testimony as to this, it is deliberately closing its eyes to important evidence. This, therefore, is surely a matter requiring a hearing for the reception of proffered testimony.
But the other alternative, that punishment here may be considered visited on the individual acts, involves a dilemma as great. There are not only the practical difficulties of the judge’s own statement that he was punishing 'for the conspiracy rather than for acts which might well be considered as due to the heat of the trial, and of making sense out of his distribution of penalties, except upon his own rationale of conspiracy.3 There is also the legal difficulty on *465the precedents referred to above, since quite obviously this trial was not being and was not broken up, but did in fact proceed to an orderly conclusion, with, indeed, what appears to be an improved attitude at least if the drying up of untoward incidents is any test.4
Certain suggested answers are not believed to be adequate. Thus it has been suggested that this was an unusual case presenting unusual situations. This indeed must be conceded. From the moment the prosecution planned to try so many defendants together on a charge of this nature, it was obvious to all but the most naive — indeed was freely stated in early newspaper comments referred to in the argument-— that trial would be extraordinarily difficult, to put it mildly. But such burdens, whether foreseen or not, can hardly justify a change in the law for more summary procedure. One might even believe that the hoped-for gains 'from a prosecution of this kind would be lost unless it amounted to a demonstration of how American legal processes, operating in ordinary and unwarped fashion, could nevertheless accomplish justice.
Again it has been suggested that since the judge could have acted summarily at the time of each incident he should not lose the right by delaying to save the trial. But if the law is correctly stated above, this is a begging of the question. The matter is one not of honoring the judge’s patience, but of following the course set by law for the circumstances as they actually exist. Summary punishment for contempt is not a right of the judge, the exercise of which he may postpone. It is an extraordinary exception to due process of law, justified only by the urgent needs of the moment. When the need for this drastic action passes, the power so to act also passes; and consonant with the long-standing mandate to use “the least possible power adequate to the end proposed,” In re Michael, 326 U.S. 224, 227, 66 S.Ct. 78, 79, 90 L.Ed. 301; Anderson v. Dunn, 6 Wheat. 204, 19 U.S. 204, 5 L.Ed. 242, the more orderly processes of notice and hearing must be employed. If the judge had acted immediately to punish summarily what he deemed to be contempts, he would have done so as a responsible decision upon the need then apparent to him; and the issue which would thereupon have been presented to a reviewing court would have been quite different from that now before us. It does not seem to me appropriate or fruitful to try now to speculate how we might then have decided. The point is that the judge actually decided otherwise, and with perspicacity if we may conclude from the outcome. Since he did decide to postpone action, our review must be centered upon the legal consequences of that decision in the light of the precedents; these are not properly to be reshaped or reversed by speculation as to a different course he might have taken.
It is suggested, too, that the hearing (which under Rule 42(h), Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, should be before another judge, since the contempt charged “involves disrespect to or criticism of a judge” and thus disqualifies him from sitting except by consent) may be dispensed with because it will produce the same result as has the present proceeding. Due process, however, accords a hearing to those believed to be clearly guilty as well as to those having a good possibility of acquittal. Moreover, on the issue which has become crucial — that of a conspiracy to obstruct justice — I do not see how we can be sure. Upon such an issue the matter of intent looms so large; indeed, the whole question as to the difference between acts done in hot or cold blood can hardly fail to take on a different significance in the light of testimony, subjected to proper cross-examination, of the parties as to their purposes, and what they had agreed to in trial preparation *466and what was not discussed. We must 'bear in mind that over and over again the charge consists of pressing a colloquy with the judge- — -in which the judge participated — -to the point of exasperation. I do not see how we can conclude that this was obviously all a matter planned before the -start of each colloquy. Moreover, the issue was not alone that of the existence of the conspiracy, but also of the participation of each in one if proven. A hearing was necessary at least to settle the degrees of guilt; quite possibly it would result in much heavier penalties to some than were actually given. A hearing therefore seems to me a prerequisite to punishment as a matter of law.
I would go -further, however, and say that a hearing, with full -evidence, is wholly desirable.on wise policy. What we seek is the proper, decorous, and benign administration of justice. Were that to be promoted by condign punishment here, I, too, should want to reshape a hesitant law to make it possible. But because I believe profoundly that it will be hindered by hasty action here, I find it wiser to stick by the -ancient precedents. I -go back to what I said earlier that the law should be inexorable, but not vindictive. We cannot wisely permit officers of the court lightly to traduce justice; but on the other hand we cannot afford to overload the sa-cred responsibility of providing adequate defense for all to the point where it cannot practically be fulfilled. It is no secret that the difficulty of securing counsel to defend adequately unpopular minority groups is -great, and indeed acute in non-metropolitan districts. On the other hand, the insistence upon counsel as a part of the constitutional element of a fair trial is more pronounced, more precisely stated, each judicial term. There may be approaching the dilemma that trial cannot be had without counsel, and yet none can be found for the burdensome job. Between the two important demands it behooves us to walk circumspectly. I know of no wiser course than to proceed deliberately according to the wisdom of the law as developed in other and perhaps less emotional ti-mes, and to approach judgment and punishment deliberately, -but by that course the more surely and justly. I would order the proceedings remanded -for hearing upon the -charges as outlined in the certificate of the judge.

. Sentence was pronounced October 14, 1949. The last act of contempt (the sole one during the trial proper) charged against appellant McCabe occurred on June 3, 1949, against Isserman, August 3, against Gladstein, August 26, and against Sacher and Crockett, September 14. ' The last contempt charged against the non-lawyer appellant, Dennis, occurred on October 4.

. In the single federal ease, In re Maury, 9 Cir., 1913, 205 F. 626, defendant was held in contempt the morning following the acts complained of and only after he was allowed to speak in his own defense. Resort to state cases as a guide to the contempt power of the federal courts has been termed “treacherous and unscientific.” Frankfurter and Landis, Power of Congress over Procedure in Criminal Contempts in “Inferior” Federal Courts — A Study in Separation of Powers, 37 Harv.L.Rev. 1010, n-. 2. Even so, in Re Willis, 1917, 94 Wash. 180, 162 P. 38, the defendant left the courtroom immediately after his contemptuous acts, and judgment was pronounced as soon as he was brought before the court the following day. And in Middlebrook v. State, 1876, 43 Conn. 257, 21 Am.Rep. 650, while sixteen days had elapsed between the contempt and the judgment, the defendant had fled the jurisdiction immediately after committing the contemptuous acts and the intervening time was spent in trying to bring him into custody. True, I can discover no statement of the exact time interval in Re Cary, 1925, 165 Minn. 203, 206 N.W. 402; but such statements as that this power “must be exercised promptly, if exorcised at all,” and the reliance upon Ex parte Terry, 128 U.S. 289, 9 S.Ct. 77 — the leading federal case where the Court continuously insists that the power be exercised “im- ' mediately,” “instantly,” or “without delay” — lead me to doubt its departure from the usual rule.

. Thus the additional severe penalty against the nonlawyer appellant Dennis, who was also one of the convicted defendants, becomes understandable on the court’s theory that he was one of the participants, indeed the leader, in the *465conspiracy. So appellant McCabe’s more limited participation in acts charged (see note 1 supra) might make his punishment seem drastic unless he was in fact a eoeonspirator.

. See the time intervals set forth in note 1 supra. So twenty-nine of the thirty-nine acts charged occurred in the first five months of these nine-month proceedings — twelve before the start of the trial proper. The ten acts cited during the last four months of the trial appear to be of a less serious nature than the earlier acts.