Gojack v. United States

Citation86 S.Ct. 1689,16 L.Ed.2d 870,384 U.S. 702
Decision Date13 June 1966
Docket NumberNo. 594,594
PartiesJohn T. GOJACK, Petitioner, v. UNITED STATES
CourtUnited States Supreme Court

Frank J. Donner, New York City, for petitioner.

J. Walter Yeagley, Washington, D.C., for respondent.

Mr. Justice FORTAS delivered the opinion of the Court.

This case is a sequel to this Court's decision in Russell v. United States, 369 U.S. 749, 82 S.Ct. 1038, 8 L.Ed.2d 240, and companion cases. One of those cases related to the same person who is petitioner here and to the same events.

Petitioner appeared before a Subcommittee of the House Committee on Un-American Activities on February 28 and March 1, 1955. He answered certain questions, but refused to answer others concerning his affiliation with the Communist Party, the affiliation of others, and his connection with a 'Peace Crusade.' He had challenged the jurisdiction of the Committee and the Subcommittee, the authorization of each, and the constitutionality of the inquiry in general and with specific ref- erence to the questions which he declined to answer.1 He did not and does not invoke the Fifth Amendment.

He was indicted for contempt of Congress under Rev.Stat. § 102, as amended, 52 Stat. 942, 2 U.S.C. § 192 (1964 ed.)2 (hereafter, § 192) as a result of his refusals to answer. He was convicted. In Russell v. United States, supra, this Court reversed, holding that the indictment was defective because it did not allege the 'subject under inquiry.' The Court noted that under § 192 specification of the subject of the inquiry is fundamental to a charge of violating its provisions. Absent an allegation of the subject matter of the inquiry, this Court held, there is no way in which it can be determined whether the factual recitals of the indictment charged a crime under § 192—that is, a refusal to answer questions 'pertinent to the inquiry,' and within the legislative competence of Congress.3

Petitioner was thereafter re-indicted. The deficiency in the first indictment was sought to be cured by a recital that '(t)he subject of these hearings was Communist Party activities within the field of labor * * *.' Petitioner was again convicted and given a general sentence of three months' imprisonment and a $200 fine. The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit affirmed per curiam. 121 U.S.App.D.C. 126, 348 F.2d 355 (1965). We granted certiorari. 382 U.S. 937, 86 S.Ct. 398, 15 L.Ed.2d 348. We reverse. It is now clear that the fault in these proceedings is more fundamental than the omission from the indictment of an allegation of the 'subject of the inquiry' being conducted by the Subcommittee. The subject of the inquiry was never specified or authorized by the Committee, as required by its own rules, nor was there a lawful delegation of authority to the Subcommittee to conduct the investigation.

Petitioner here urges that we reconsider this Court's decision in Barenblatt v. United States, 360 U.S. 109, 79 S.Ct. 1081, 3 L.Ed.2d 1115. In Barenblatt this Court upheld the authority of the Committee to investigate Communist infiltration into the field of education. In the circumstances of that case, the Court sustained the constitutionality of the investigation and of the Committee's inquiry into petitioner's alleged membership in the Communist Party. Since we decide the present case on other grounds, it is not necessary nor would it be appropriate to reach the constitutional question.

I.

Rule I of the Rules of Procedure of the House Committee on Un-American Activities provides that 'No major investigation shall be initiated without approval of a majority of the Committee.' Rule XI, par. 26, of the Rules of the House of Representatives requires each Committee of the House to keep a record of all committee actions. There is no resolution, minute or record of the Committee authorizing the inquiry with which we are concerned.

The Solicitor General's brief in this Court states that: 'Admittedly, there is no direct evidence that the Committee approved the investigation of Communist activities in the field of labor of which the hearings at which petitioner was called to testify were a part.' A footnote to this statement concedes that 'We do not dispute that this investigation was a 'major' one and that approval by a majority of the Committee was therefore required.'

The Government's only plea in avoidance of this obvious deficiency is that we should 'infer' Committee approval of the inquiry at which petitioner was required to respond to questions, because it was part of the Committee's alleged 'continuing investigation' of Communist activities in the labor field. 4 But this is clearly imper- missible. We are not here dealing with the justification for an investigation by a committee of the Congress as a matter of congressional administration. That is a legislative matter. We are here concerned with a criminal proceeding. It is clear as a matter of law that the usual standards of the criminal law must be observed, including proper allegation and proof of all the essential elements of the offense.5 Moreover, the Congress, in enacting § 192, specifically indicated that it relied upon the courts to apply the exacting standards of criminal jurisprudence to charges of contempt of Congress in order to assure that the congressional investigative power, when enforced by penal sanctions, would not be abused.6

It can hardly be disputed that a specific, properly authorized subject of inquiry is an essential element of the offense under § 192. In Russell, this Court held that the definition of the subject under inquiry is 'the basic preliminary question which the federal courts * * * (would) have to decide in determining whether a criminal offense had been alleged or proved.' 'Our decisions have pointed out that the obvious first step in determining whether the questions asked were pertinent to the subject under inquiry is to ascertain what that subject was.' 369 U.S., at 756—757, 758—759, 82 S.Ct., at 1043—1044. See also Wilkinson v. United States, 365 U.S. 399, 407—409, 81 S.Ct. 567, 572—573; Deutch v. United States, 367 U.S. 456, 467—469, 81 S.Ct. 1587, 1593—1594, 6 L.Ed.2d 693; Watkins v. United States, 354 U.S. 178, 208—215, 77 S.Ct. 1173, 1189—1193; Sinclair v. United States, 279 U.S. 263, 295—296, 49 S.Ct. 268, 272—273. In United States v. Rumely, 345 U.S. 41, 73 S.Ct. 543, 97 L.Ed. 770, Mr. Justice Frankfurter observed that the resolution defining the subject of a committee's inquiry is the committee's 'controlling charter' and delimits its 'right to exact testimony.' 345 U.S., at 44, 73 S.Ct., at 545. Cf. Sinclair v. United States, 279 U.S. 263, 295 298, 49 S.Ct. 268, 272—273. This Court made it clear in Watkins v. United States, 354 U.S. 178, 201, 206, 77 S.Ct. 1173, 1186, 1189, that pertinency is a 'jurisdictional concept' and it must be determined by reference to the authorizing resolution of an investigation. The House Committee on Un-American Activities has itself recognized the fundamental importance of specific authorization by providing in its Rule I that a major inquiry must be initiated by vote of a majority of the Committee. When a committee rule relates to a matter of such importance, it must be strictly observed. Yellin v. United States, 374 U.S. 109, 83 S.Ct. 1828, 10 L.Ed.2d 778. Since the present inquiry is concededly part of a 'major investigation' and the Committee did not authorize it as required by its own Rule I, this prosecution must fail. There is no basis for invoking criminal sanctions to punish a witness for refusal to cooperate in an inquiry which was never properly authorized.

Indeed, the present case illustrates the wisdom of the Committee's Rule requiring specific authorization of a major investigation. Here, in the absence of official authorization of a specific inquiry, statements were made as to the subject and purpose of the inquiry which, to say the least, might have caused confusion as to the subject of the investigation, and might well have inspired respectable doubts as to legal validity of the Committee's purposes.7 A brief recapitulation of the relevant facts will demonstrate this:

1. On November 19, 1954, about a month and a half before appointment of the Subcommittee, the Chairman of the Committee was reported as having announced that 'large public hearings in industrial communities' would be held to expose active Communists as part of 'a new plan for driving Reds out of important industries.'8

2. On February 14, when a representative of petitioner's union appeared to request a postponement, the Chairman of the Committee stated that all of us are interested in seeing your union go out of business.' A similar statement by the Chairman of the Subcommittee was reported in the press on February 15.

3. On February 21, the record shows that a newspaper in St. Joseph, Michigan, reported a statement of the Committee Chairman that the hearing would expose petitioner and another subpoenaed witness as 'card carrying Communists' and that 'The rest is up to the community.' The story noted that the rescheduled hearing would precede by three days a representation election, involving the union, at St. Joseph.

4. Near the close of the testimony of the first witness at the hearing, the Chairman and other members of the Subcommittee disavowed any effort 'to break or bust unions,' but added that the Committee's purpose was to expose and break up Communist control of unions.

5. At one point in the hearing, the member of the Subcommittee who was then presiding stated that the purpose of the hearing was to consider testimony relating to Communist Party activities within the field of labor, but went on to refer to other purposes. He said that the hearing would also consider 'the circumstances under which members of the Communist Party in the United States were recruited for military service in the Spanish Civil War, and to ascertain the method used by the Communist Party in securing...

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