United States v. Harriss

• Citation: 74 S.Ct. 808,347 U.S. 612,98 L.Ed. 989
• Decision Date: 07 June 1954
• Docket Number: No. 32,32
• Parties: UNITED STATES v. HARRISS et al
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

347 U.S. 612

74 S.Ct. 808

98 L.Ed. 989

UNITED STATES

v HARRISS et al.

No. 32.

Argued Oct. 19, 1953.

Decided June 7, 1954.

Mr. Oscar H. Davis, Washington, D.C., for appellant.

Messrs. Burton K. Wheeler, Washington, D.C., Hugh Howell, Atlanta, Ga., for appellee.

Mr. Chief Justice WARREN delivered the opinion of the Court.

The appellees were charged by information with violation of the Federal Regulation of Lobbying Act, 60 Stat. 812, 839, 2 U.S.C. §§ 261—270, 2 U.S.C.A. §§ 261—270. Relying on its previous decision in National Association of Manufacturers v. McGrath, D.C., 103 F.Supp. 510, vacated as moot, 344 U.S. 804, 73 S.Ct. 313, 97 L.Ed. 627, the District Court dismissed the information on the ground that the Act is unconstitutional. The case is here on direct appeal under the Criminal Appeals Act, 18 U.S.C. § 3731, 18 U.S.C.A. § 3731.

Seven counts of the information are laid under § 305, which requires designated reports to Congress from every person 'receiving any contributions or expending any money' for the purpose of influencing the passage or defeat of any legislation by Congress.¹ One such count charges the National Farm Committee, a Texas corpora- tion, with failure to report the solicitation and receipt of contributions to influence the passage of legislation which would cause a rise in the price of agricultural commodities and commodity futures and the defeat of legislation which would cause a decline in those prices. The remaining six counts under § 305 charge defendants Moore and Harriss with failure to report expenditures having the same single purpose. Some of the alleged expenditures consist of the payment of compensation to others to communicate face-to-face with members of Congress, at public functions and committee hearings, concerning legislation affecting agricultural prices; the other alleged expenditures relate largely to the costs of a campaign to induce various interested groups and individuals to communicate by letter with members of Congress on such legislation.

The other two counts in the information are laid under § 308, which requires any person 'who shall engage himself for pay or for any consideration for the purpose of attempting to influence the passage or defeat of any legislation' to register with Congress and to make specified disclosures.² These two counts allege in considerable detail that defendants Moore and Linder were hired to express certain views to Congress as to agricultural prices or to cause others to do so, for the purpose of attempting to influence the passage of legislation which would cause a rise in the price of agricultural commodities and commodity futures and a defeat of legislation which would cause a decline in such prices; and that pursuant to this undertaking, without having registered as required by s 308, they arranged to have members of Congress contacted on behalf of these views, either directly by their own emissaries or through an artificially stimulated letter campaign.³

We are not concerned here with the sufficiency of the information as a criminal pleading. Our review under the Criminal Appeals Act is limited to a decision on the alleged 'invalidity' of the statute on which the information is based.⁴ In making this decision, we judge the statute on its face. See United States v. Petrillo, 332 U.S. 1, 6, 12, 67 S.Ct. 1538, 1541, 1544, 91 L.Ed. 1877. The 'invalidity' of the Lobbying Act is asserted on three grounds: (1) that §§ 305, 307, and 308 are too vague and indefinite to meet the requirements of due process; (2) that §§ 305 and 308 violate the First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and the right to petition the Government; (3) that the penalty provision of § 310(b) violates the right of the people under the First Amendment to petition the Government.

I.

The constitutional requirement of definiteness is violated by a criminal statute that fails to give a person of ordinary intelligence fair notice that his contemplated conduct is forbidden by the statute. The underlying principle is that no man shall be held criminally responsible for conduct which he could not reasonably understand to be proscribed.⁵

On the other hand, if the general class of offenses to which the statute is directed is plainly within its terms, the statute will not be struck down as vague even though marginal cases could be put where doubts might arise. United States v. Petrillo, 332 U.S. 1, 7, 67 S.Ct. 1538, 1541. Cf. Jordan v. De George, 341 U.S. 223, 231, 71 S.Ct. 703, 707, 95 L.Ed. 886. And if this general class of offenses can be made constitutionally definite by a reasonable construction of the statute, this Court is under a duty to give the statute that construction. This was the course adopted in Screws v. United States, 325 U.S. 91, 65 S.Ct. 1031, 89 L.Ed. 1495, upholding the definiteness of the Civil Rights Act.⁶

The same course is appropriate here. The key section of the Lobbying Act is § 307, entitled 'Persons to Whom Applicable'. Section 307 provides:

'The provisions of this title shall apply to any person (except a political committee as defined in the Federal Corrupt Practices Act, and duly organized State or local committees of a political party), who by himself, or through any agent or employee or other persons in any manner whatsoever, directly or indirectly, solicits, collects, or receives money or any other thing of value to be used principally to aid, or the principal purpose of which person is to aid, in the accomplishment of any of the following purposes:

'(a) The passage or defeat of any legislation by the Congress of the United States.

'(b) To influence, directly or indirectly, the passage or defeat of any legislation by the Congress of the United States.'

This section modifies the substantive provisions of the Act, including § 305 and § 308. In other words, unless a 'person' falls within the category established by § 307, the disclosure requirements of § 305 and § 308 are inapplicable.⁷ Thus coverage under the Act is limited to those persons (except for the specified political committees) who solicit, collect, or receive contributions of money or other thing of value, and then only if the principal purpose of either the persons or the contributions is to aid in the accomplishment of the aims set forth in § 307(a) and (b). In any event, the solicitation, collection, or receipt of money or other thing of value is a prerequisite to coverage under the Act.

The Government urges a much broader construction—namely, that under § 305 a person must report his expenditures to influence legislation even though he does not solicit, collect, or receive contributions as provided in § 307.⁸ Such a construction, we believe, would do violence to the title and language of § 307 as well as its legislative history.⁹ If the construction urged by the Government is to become law, that is for Congress to accomplish by further legislation.

We now turn to the alleged vagueness of the purposes set forth in § 307(a) and (b). As in United States v. Rumely, 345 U.S. 41, 47, 73 S.Ct. 543, 546, 97 L.Ed. 770, which involved the interpretation of similar language, we believe this language should be construed to refer only to "lobbying in its commonly accepted sense"—to direct communication with members of Congress on pending or proposed federal legislation. The legislative history of the Act makes clear that, at the very least, Congress sought disclosure of such direct pressures, exerted by the lobbyist themselves or through their hirelings or through an artificially stimulated letter campaign.¹⁰ It is likewise clear that Congress would have intended the Act to operate on this narrower basis, even if a broader application to organizations seeking to propagandize the general public were not permissible.¹¹

There remains for our consideration the meaning of 'the principal purpose' and 'to be used principally to aid.' The legislative history of the Act indicates that the term 'principal' was adopted merely to exclude from the scope of § 307 those contributions and persons having only an 'incidental' purpose of influencing legislation.¹² Conversely, the 'principal purpose' requirement does not exclude a contribution which in substantial part is to be used to influence legislation through direct communication with Congress or a person whose activities in substantial part are directed to influencing legislation through direct communication with Congress.¹³ If it were otherwise—if an organization, for example, were exempted because lobbying was only one of its main activities—the Act would in large measure be reduced to a mere exhortation against abuse of the legislative process. In construing the Act narrowly to avoid constitutional doubts, we must also avoid a construction that would seriously impair the effectiveness of the Act in coping with the problem it was designed to alleviate.

To summarize, therefore, there are three prerequisites to coverage under § 307: (1) the 'person' must have solicited, collected, or received contributions; (2) one of the main purposes of such 'person,' or one of the main purposes of such contributions, must have been to influence the passage or defeat of legislation by Congress; (3) the intended method of accomplishing this purpose must have been through direct communication with members of Congress. And since § 307 modifies the substantive provisions of the Act, our construction of § 307 will of necessity also narrow the scope of § 305 and § 308, the substantive provisions underlying the information in this case. Thus § 305 is limited to those persons who are covered by § 307; and when so covered, they must report all contributions and expenditures having the purpose of attempting to influence legislation through direct communication with Congress. Similarly, § 308 is limited to those persons (with the stated exceptions¹⁴) who are covered by § 307 and who, in addition, engage themselves for...