Aczel v. United States

232 F. 652, 146 C.C.A. 578, 1916 U.S. App. LEXIS 1864
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedFebruary 3, 1916
DocketNo. 2269
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 232 F. 652 (Aczel v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Aczel v. United States, 232 F. 652, 146 C.C.A. 578, 1916 U.S. App. LEXIS 1864 (7th Cir. 1916).

Opinion

AESCIIULER, Circuit Judge

(after stating the facts as above). The sufficiency of the indictment is the only question brought here for determination.

[1] The first of the four counts being predicated on section 19 of the Criminal Code, which makes it a criminal act to “conspire to injure, oppress, threaten or intimidate any citizen in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution and laws of the United States,” the validity of the count will depend primarily on whether the infraction therein charged is in respect to any right or privilege which is secured to the citizen by the Constitution and laws of the United States. What are rights of citizens, secured to them by the Constitution and laws of the United States, has been a subject of frequent consideration by the federal courts. Article 1, § 2, of the federal Constitution, provides that:

“The House of Representativos shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several states, and the electors in each state shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the state Legislature.”

It has been repeatedly held by the federal courts, and particularly in cases where conspiracies under section 19 were charged, that the right of voters to vote at elections for Member of Congress is a right secured by the Constitution and laws of the United States. Ex parte Yarbrough, 110 U. S. 651, 4 Sup. Ct. 152, 28 L. Ed. 274; In re Coy, 127 U. S. 731, 8 Sup. Ct. 1263, 32 L. Ed. 274; Wiley v. Sinkler, 179 U. S. 58, 21 Sup. Ct. 17, 45 L. Ed. 84; Swafford v. Templeton, 185 U. S. 487, 22 Sup. Ct. 783, 46 L. Ed. 1005; James v. Bowman, 190 U S. 127, 23 Sup. Ct. 678, 47 L. Ed. 979; United States v. Mosley et al., 238 U. S. 383, 35 Sup. Ct. 904, 59 L. Ed. 1355; Felix v. United States, 186 Fed. 685, 108 C. C. A. 503; United States v. Stone (D. C.) 188 Fed. 836.

From the opinion in the very recent Mosley Case, which involved an indictment under section 19 lor conspiracy to injure and oppress citizens of Oklahoma in their right to vote for a Member of Congress, we quote the following:

“It is not open to question that this statute is constitutional, and constitutionally extends some protection, at least, to the right to vote for Members of Congress. Ex parte Yarbrough, 110 U. S. 651 [4 Sup. Ct. 152, 28 I,. Ed. 274]; Logan v. United States, 144 U. S. 263, 293 [12 Sup. Ct. 617, 36 L. Ed. 429]. We regard it as equally unquestionable that the right to have one’s vote counted is as open to protection by Congress as the right to put a ballot in a box.”

Since the adoption of the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution, providing for the popular election of United States Senators, and the act of Congress of June 4, 1914, providing a temporary method of electing United States Senators, the right to vote at any such election for United States Senator must be likewise considered a right secured by the Constitution and laws of the United States. Indeed, the applicability of section 19 to conspiracies to injure citizens in tlieir right to vote for Senators and Congressmen at elections where they are to be chosen does not seem here to be controverted, although it appears from the opinion of the District Court rendered in passing on [656]*656the demurrers, that the main contention there made in support of the demurrers was that the right to vote for Senators and Members of Congress was not one which was secured by the Constitution and laws of the United States. Possibly the present attitude on this proposition has been influenced by the Mosley Case, supra, the opinion in which has been handed down since the judgment of conviction herein.

[2] But with respect to the right of serving as election officers, and of freedom from arrest without due process of law, it is earnestly insisted on behalf of plaintiffs in error that these are not rights which áre secured by the Constitution and laws of the United States, and that as to these section 19 has no application. If the count were grounded wholly on an alleged conspiracy to injure citizens in respect to their rights generally to serve as officers of election, and.to be free from arrest without due process of law, as rights secured by the Constitution and laws of the United States rather than by the laws of the states, serious doubt of the validity of such a count might, under the decisions, be well entertained. United States v. Cruikshank et al., 92 U. S. 542, 23 L. Ed. 588; United States v. Harris, 106 U. S. 629, 1 Sup. Ct. 601, 27 L. Ed. 290; Civil Rights Cases, 109 U. S. 3, 3 Sup. Ct. 18, 27 L. Ed. 835; James v. Bowman, 190 U. S. 127, 23 Sup. Ct. 678, 47 L. Ed, 979; Hodges v. United States, 203 U. S. 1, 27 Sup. Ct. 6, 51 L. Ed. 65.

But if it be assumed that, abstractly and generally considered, the right to act as judge, clerk, or inspector of elections, and the right of liberty, and freedom from arrest without due process of law, are not rights which are secured by the Constitution or laws of the United States, but are dependent upon the laws of the state, it must be remembered that the charges in this count with respect to the right to serve as election officers and the right of immunity from arrest without due process of law, are not separate courits of the indictment, but are a part of the first count, and are therein set forth as part of the conspiracy to injure the persons named in their right to vote for a Senator and a Member of Congress. In this relation they cannot be considered in the same light as if, in separate counts, the rights alleged to have been violated were the right to serve as such election officers and the right to immunity from arrest, independent of and disconnected with any purpose thereby to influence the election of a United States Senator or Representative in Congress.

But if they were alleged in the same count as separate purposes of the same conspiracy, without allegation of connection with the conspiracy to injure the voters in their right to vote as set forth in the count, this would not invalidate the count in so far aS it may properly charge a conspiracy to injuriously affect citizens in their right to vote for United States Senator and Member of Congress, as a right secured by the Constitution and laws of the United States. If the count aptly charges.the defendants with conspiracy in respect to the last-named right, the count would be good, regardless of those other parts of the count which might charge that the conspiracy had aEo foi its object the injury of citizens in respect to other rights.

[3]

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Bluebook (online)
232 F. 652, 146 C.C.A. 578, 1916 U.S. App. LEXIS 1864, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/aczel-v-united-states-ca7-1916.