Court Opinion

ID: 9455483
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 19:23:35.825377+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:34:36.909963
License: Public Domain

O’SULLIVAN, Senior Circuit Judge
(dissenting in part).
I concur in Judge McCree’s dissent. I do so because I believe that his opinion is more consistent with Marchetti v. United States, 390 U.S. 39, 88 S.Ct. 697, 19 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968) than the carefully prepared opinion of Judge Edwards. I believe that, whether operating in Michigan, Tennessee, or elsewhere, “moonshiners” make up a “group inherently suspect of criminal activities” just as much as the “big time” gamblers who enjoy the protection of Marchetti. Emphasis is placed upon the fact that the alcohol tax laws are “essentially noncriminal”. This is so, it is argued, because such laws exist primarily to raise revenue. Such laws do, however, provide criminal sanction for their violation and in most states, while the manufacture of distilled spirits is not totally forbidden, the activity for which this *457convicted — -“moonshin-defendant was ing” — is criminal activity wherever it is carried on.
Distinction is asserted to exist because the statute involved in Marchetti was purposely passed by Congress to interrupt criminal conduct — “big time” gambling carried on, in part at least, by “the syndicate”, a part of organized crime. It is argued that Congress cannot impair the Fifth Amendment rights of those so engaged, but may forbid use of the Fifth Amendment by those who choose to violate the revenue laws relating to distilled spirits. The “moonshiner” has been as effectively deprived of the protection of the Fifth Amendment when he is convicted for failure to announce his intention to engage in criminal activity as is the interstate gambler, convicted for failure to register and disclose his intention to engage in crime. I am unable to discern legitimacy in the nuances employed to find distinction between the “moonshiner” and members of “the syndicate”. So long as Mar-chetti is the law, it should be followed without discrimination.