United States Tisi v. Tod

• Decision Date: 18 February 1924
• Docket Number: No. 132,132
• Citation: 68 L.Ed. 590,44 S.Ct. 260,264 U.S. 131
• Parties: UNITED STATES ex rel. TISI v. TOD, Commissioner of Immigration
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

264 U.S. 131

44 S.Ct. 260

68 L.Ed. 590

UNITED STATES ex rel. TISI

v TOD, Commissioner of Immigration.

No. 132.

Argued Jan. 3, 1924.

Decided Feb. 18, 1924.

Messrs. Walter Nelles and Isaac Shorr, both of New York City, for appellant.

Messrs. James M. Beck, Sol. Gen., of Washington, D. C., and George Ross Hull, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.

Mr. Justice BRANDEIS delivered the opinion of the Court.

Tisi, an alien, was arrested in deportation proceedings as being within the United States in violation of law. The ground specified was knowingly having in his possession for the purpose of distribution printed matter which advocated the overthrow of the government of the United States by force. Act of October 16, 1918, c. 186, §§ 1 and 2, 40 Stat. 1012 (Comp. St. Ann. Supp. 1919, §§ 4289 1/4 b[1], 4289 1/4 b[2]), as amended by Act of June 5, 1920, c. 251, 41 Stat. 1008 (Comp. St. Ann. Supp. 1923, § 4289 1/4 b[1]). The warrant of deportation issued after a hearing. Then this petition for a writ of habeas corpus was brought in the federal court, and heard upon the return and a traverse thereto. The order, entered without opinion, dismissed the writ, remanded the relator to the custody of the commissioner of immigration at the port of New York, and granted a stay, pending the appeal to this court. The case is here under section 238 of the Judicial Code (Comp. St. § 1215), the claim being that Tisi was denied rights guaranteed by the federal Constitution.

Tisi's claim to be discharged on habeas corpus rests wholly upon the contention that he has been denied due process of law. There was confessedly due notice of the charge and ample opportunity to be heard. What Tisi URGES IS THAT THERE WAS NO EVIDENCE TO SUstain the finding that he knew the seditious character of the printed matter. Such knowledge is not, like alienage, a jurisdictional fact. Ng Fung Ho v. White, 259 U. S. 276, 284, 42 Sup. Ct. 492, 66 L. Ed. 938; United States ex rel. Bilokumsky v. Tod, 263 U. S. 149, 44 Sup. Ct. 54, 68 L. Ed. ——, decided, November 12, 1923. But it is an essential of the authority to deport. There is no suggestion that the Secretary of Labor failed to recognize this requirement. The contention is that he erred in deciding that there was substantial evidence of such knowledge and in allowing the supposed evidence to convince him of the fact. The printed matter found consisted of leaflets in the English language. Tisi testified that he cannot read English, that he did not know the character of the leaflets, and that his presence in the company of other Italians who were seen folding the leaflets was accidental. The Secretary of Labor was not obliged to believe this testimony. The government did not introduce any direct evidence to the contrary. But there was much evidence of other facts from which Tisi's knowledge of the character of the leaflets might reasonably have been inferred. We do not discuss the evidence, because the correctness of the judgment of the lower court is not to be determined by inquiring whether the conclusion drawn by the Secretary of Labor from the evidence was correct, or by deciding whether the evidence was such that, if introduced in a court of...