Morris Glickstein v. United States

• Decision Date: 04 December 1911
• Docket Number: No. 486,486
• Citation: 32 S.Ct. 71,56 L.Ed. 128,222 U.S. 139
• Parties: MORRIS GLICKSTEIN v. UNITED STATES
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

222 U.S. 139

32 S.Ct. 71

56 L.Ed. 128

MORRIS GLICKSTEIN

v UNITED STATES.

No. 486.

Submitted October 19, 1911.

Decided December 4, 1911.

Messrs. N. P. Bryan and John E. Hartridge for Glickstein.

Solicitor General Lehmann for the United States.

Mr. Chief Justice White delivered the opinion of the court:

Glickstein, an adjudicated bankrupt, was indicted for perjury in having falsely sworn in the bankruptcy proceeding, while under examination before a referee, as required by the 7th section, subdiv. 9, of the bankrupt act of 1898 [30 Stat. at L. 548, chap. 541, U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 3425]. The indictment was demurred to on the following grounds: '(a) A prosecution for perjury against a bankrupt at a meeting of his creditors will not lie; (b) The indictment was based upon testimony given by the bankrupt, affecting the administration and settlement of his estate; (c) A person cannot be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself.' At the trial which followed the overruling of the demurrer, the testimony of Glickstein, which was the subject of the indictment, was offered and objected to on the same grounds upon which the demurrer was based, and exceptions were taken to the admission of the testimony in evidence.

When the legality of a conviction and sentence of Glickstein was before the court below, as the result of error prosecuted by him, the court, stating the facts which we have recited, certified the following question: 'Is subsec. 9 and the immunity afforded by it applicable to a prosecution for perjury committed by the bankrupt when examined under it?'

Section 7, subdiv. 9, which we are required to consider in order to solve the question, is as follows:

'The bankrupt shall . . . (9) when present at the first meeting of his creditors, and at such other times as the court shall order, submit to an examination concerning the conducting of his business, the cause of his bankruptcy, his dealings with his creditors and other persons, the amount, kind, and whereabouts of his property, and, in addition, all matters which may affect the administration and settlement of his estate; but no testimony given by him shall be offered in evidence against him in any criminal proceeding.'

It is difficult to determine from the contentions urged in favor of an affirmative answer, whether it is deemed the solution of the problem requires us to decide a question of constitutional right, or simply calls for an interpretation of the provision of the bankrupt act to which the question relates. To exclude irrelevant matter, and to confine our attention to the precise subject to be passed upon, we state certain propositions which are not open to controversy, because foreclosed by decisions of this court, or which, if not expressly foreclosed, are so indubitably the result of settled principles as to cause them also to be not subject to reasonable dispute.

1st. It is undoubted that the constitutional guaranty of the 5th Amendment does not deprive the lawmaking authority of the power to compel the giving of testimony, even although the testimony, when given, might serve to incriminate the one testifying, provided immunity be accorded, the immunity, of course, being required to be complete; that is to say, in all respects commensurate with the protection guaranteed by the constitutional limitation. The authorities which establish this elementary proposition are too numerous to be cited, and we therefore simply refer to a few of the leading cases on the subject: Counselman v. Hitchcock, 142 U. S. 547, 35 L. ed. 1110, 3 Inters. Com. Rep. 816, 12 Sup. Ct. Rep. 195; Brown v. Walker, 161 U. S. 591, 40 L. ed. 819, 5 Inters. Com. Rep. 369, 16 Sup. Ct. Rep. 644; Burrell v. Montana, 194 U. S. 572, 578, 48 L. ed. 1122, 1123, 24 Sup. Ct. Rep. 787; Jack v. Kansas, 199 U. S. 372, 50 L. ed. 234, 26 Sup. Ct. Rep. 73, 4 A. & E. Ann. Cas. 689; Ballmann v. Fagin, 200 U. S. 186, 195, 50 L. ed. 433, 437, 26 Sup. Ct. Rep. 212; Hale v. Henkel, 201 U. S. 43, 66, 50 L. ed. 652, 662, 26 Sup. Ct. Rep. 370; and Heike v. United States, 217 U. S. 423, 54 L. ed. 821, 30 Sup. Ct. Rep. 539.

2d. As the authority which the proposition just stated embraces exists, and as the sanction of an oath and the imposition of a punishment for false swearing are inherently a part of the power to compel the giving of testimony, they are included in that grant of authority, and are not prohibited by the immunity as to self-incrimination. Of course, this proposition is essentially the resultant of the first, since, unless it be well founded, the first also must be wanting in foundation. This must be the result, as it cannot be conceived that there is power to compel the giving of testimony where no right exists to require that the testimony...