United States v. Five Gambling Devices, Labeled In Part Mills and Bearing Serial Nos 593 8212 221, Etc United States v. Denmark United States v. Braun

• Decision Date: 07 December 1953
• Docket Number: 40,41,Nos. 14,s. 14
• Parties: UNITED STATES v. FIVE GAMBLING DEVICES, LABELED IN PART 'MILLS,' AND BEARING SERIAL NOS. 593—221, ETC. UNITED STATES v. DENMARK. UNITED STATES v. BRAUN
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

346 U.S. 441

74 S.Ct. 190

98 L.Ed. 179

UNITED STATES

v FIVE GAMBLING DEVICES, LABELED IN PART 'MILLS,' AND BEARING SERIAL NOS. 593—221, ETC.

UNITED STATES

v. DENMARK.

UNITED STATES

v. BRAUN.

Nos. 14, 40, 41.

Argued Oct. 12, 1953.

Decided Dec. 7, 1953.

Mr. Robert L. Stern, Acting Sol. Gen., Washington, D.C., for appellant.

Mr. Shelby Myrick, Savannah, Ga., for appellees Denmark and Braun.

No appearance for appellee in No. 14.

Mr. Justice JACKSON announced the judgment of the Court and an opinion in which Mr. Justice FRANKFURTER and Mr. Justice MINTON join.

These cases present unsuccessful attempts, by two different procedures, to enforce the view of the Department of Justice as to construction of the Act of January 2, 1951,¹ which prohibits shipment of gambling machines in interstate commerce but includes incidental registration and reporting provisions. Two indictments charge Denmark and Braun severally with engaging in the business of dealing in gambling devices without registering with the Attorney General and reporting sales and deliveries. Both indictments were dismissed. The other proceeding is a libel to forfeit five gambling machines seized by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents from a country club in Tennessee. It also was dismissed.

The three cases, here on Government appeals, are similar in features which led to their dismissal and which raise constitutional issues. The indictments do not allege that the accused dealers, since the effective date of the Act or for that matter at any other time, have bought, sold or moved gambling devices in interstate commerce, or that the devices involved in their unreported sales have, since the effective date of the Act or at any other time, moved in interstate commerce or ever would do so. The libel does not show that the country club's machines were at any time transported in or in any way affect interestate commerce.

Section 2 of the Act prohibits transportation of gambling devices in interstate commerce except to any state which exempts itself or its subdivision by state law.² Section 3 requires every manufacturer and dealer in gambling devices annually to register his business and name and monthly to file detailed information as to each device sold and delivered during the preceding month. ³ Section 6 provides criminal penalties for failure to register or for violation of the transportation section,⁴ and § 7 authorizes forfeiture of devices sold in violation of the Act.⁵

The information requirements are not expressly limited to persons engaged or transactions occurring in interstate commerce or conditioned on any connection therewith. Neither does the Act by any specific terms direct its application to transactions such as we have here.

Appellees contend, first, that the Act should not be construed to reach dealers, transactions or machines unless shown to have some relation to interestate commerce; second, construed, otherwise, the Act exceeds the power delegated to Congress under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution; third, the statute is unconstitutionally vague.

The Government answers, first, that the statute, literally read, reaches all dealers and transactions and the possession of all unreported devices without reference to interstate commerce; second, to make effective the prohibition of transportation in interstate commerce, Congress may constitutionally require reporting of all intrastate transactions; and, third, while Congress, by oversight, left an inappropriate and confusing phrase in the Act, the defect is not fatal inasmuch as the Attorney General has power to supplement the Act by regulations which will cure its indefiniteness.⁶ We do not intimate any ultimate answer to the appellees' constitutional questions other than the observe that they cannot be dismissed as frivolous, nor as unimportant to the nature of our federation. No precedent of this Court sustains the power of Congress to enact legislation penalizing failure to report information concerning acts not shown to be in, or mingled with, or found to affect commerce. The course of decision relied on by the Government on analysis falls short of the holding asked of us here. Indeed, we find no instance where Congress has attempted under the commerce power to impose reporting duties under penal sanction which would raise the question posed by these proceedings.⁷ It is apparent that the Government's pleadings raise, and no doubt were intended to raise, a far-reaching question as to the extent of congressional power over matters internal to the individual states.

Of course, Congress possesses not only power to regulate commerce among the several states but also an inexact power 'To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution' its enumerated powers. In some instances Congress has left to an administrative body, such as the Interstate Commerce Commission or the National Labor Relations Board, the power to decide on a case-to-case basis whether the particular intrastate activity affects interstate commerce so as to warrant exercise of the power to reach into intrastate affairs.⁸ Decisions under this type of legislation give the Government no support, for no such determination is required by this Act, and the Government asserts no such finding by anyone is necessary. In other statutes Congress has set up economic regulations which lay hold of activities in interstate commerce but also include intrastate activities so intermingled therewith that separa- tion is impractical or impossible.⁹ Of course, decisions upholding legislation requiring information in aid of the taxing power¹⁰ afford no support here, because the taxing power penetrates and permeates every activity, intrastate or interstate, within the Nation. While general statements, out of these different contexts, might bear upon the subject one way or another, it is apparent that the precise question tendered to us now is not settled by any prior decision.

The principle is old and deeply imbedded in our jurisprudence that this Court will construe a state in a manner that requires decision of serious constitutional questions only if the statutory language leaves no reasonable alternative. United States v. Rumely, 345 U.S. 41, 73 S.Ct. 543. This is not because we would avoid or postpone difficult decisions. The predominant consideration is that we should be sure Congress has intentionally put its power in issue by the legislation in question before we undertake a pronouncement which may have far-reaching consequences upon the powers of the Congress or the powers reserved to the several states. To withhold passing upon an issue of power until we are certain it is knowingly precipitated will do not great injury, for Congress, once we have recognized the question, can make its purpose explicit and thereby necessitate or avoid decision of the question. Judicial abstention is especially wholesome where we are considering a penal statute. Our policy in constitutional cases is reinforced by the long tradition and sound reasons which admonish against enlargement of criminal statutes by interpretation.

This Court does and should accord a strong presumption of constitutionality to Acts of Congress. This is not a mere polite gesture. It is a deference due to deliberate judgment by constitutional majorities of the two Houses of Congress that an Act is within their delegated power or is necessary and proper to execution of that power. The rational and practical force of the presumption is at its maximum only when it appears that the precise point in issue here has been considered by Congress and has been explicitly and deliberately resolved. ¹¹ But the presumption can have little realism when responsible congressional committees and leaders, in managing a bill, have told Congress that the bill will not reach that which the Act is invoked in this Court to cover.

We do not question that literal language of this Act is capable of the broad, unlimited construction urged by the Government. Indeed, if it were enacted for a unitary system of government, no other construction would be appropriate. But we must assume that the implications and limitations of our federal system constitute a major premise of all congressional legislation, though not repeatedly recited therein. Against the background of our tradition and system of government, we cannot say that the lower courts, which have held as a matter of statutory construction that this Act does not reach purely intrastate matters, have not made a permissible interpretation.¹² We find in the text no unmistakable intention of Congress to raise the constitutional questions implicit in the Government's effort to apply the Act in its most extreme impact upon affairs considered normally reserved to the states.

Judges differ as to the value of legislative history in statutory construction, but the Government often relies upon it to sustain its interpretation of statutes. However, in this case its reference to legislative history is conspicuously meager and unenlightening.¹³ On the other hand, for what it is worth, appellees point out much that was reported by responsible committees and said by proponents of this antigambling-device legislation to indicate that Congress did not intend to raise the issues here presented and was not aware it was doing so. For example, Senator Johnson, sponsor of the bill which eventually became this Act, declared that '* * * it keeps the Federal Government out of State and local police powers; no Federal official is going to become an enforcement officer in any State or locality.'¹⁴ The committee handling the bill reported: 'On the other hand, the committee desires to emphasize that Federal law enforcement in the field of gambling cannot and should not be considered a substitute for State and local law enforcement in this field.'¹⁵ But here it was the Federal Bureau of Investigation which entered a country club and seized...