United States v. Knowles

148 F. Supp. 832, 1957 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4120
CourtCourt of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
DecidedJanuary 10, 1957
DocketCrim. No. 1211-56
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 148 F. Supp. 832 (United States v. Knowles) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Knowles, 148 F. Supp. 832, 1957 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4120 (D.C. Cir. 1957).

Opinion

RIZLEY, District Judge.

Opinion

It is charged by indictment in fifty-eight counts that the defendant, Mary Knowles, in contempt of the lawful powers of Congress, refused to answer certain questions propounded to her by members and counsel of the Subcommittee on Internal Security of the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States Senate while the defendant was under oath and appearing as a witness pursuant to lawful summons issued under the authority of the United States Senate.

The parties to this cause have stipulated that:

“On July 29,1955, and on September 15, 1955, in Washington, D.C., the defendant appeared before the Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act [50 U.S.C.A. § 781 et seq.] and Other Internal Security Laws, of the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States Senate, pursuant to Section 102(1) (k) of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946 (60 Stat. 818), and to Senate Resolution 366 of the 81st Congress and 58 of the 84th Congress, and to the Standing Rules of the Senate.
“After the testimony of the de-' fendant, the matter of the alleged contempt of defendant on each above occasion was duly reported to the Senate and was duly certified by it to the United States Attorney.”

The enabling resolution, under which the subcommittee was proceeding at the times of the alleged contempts, directed such body, “to make a complete and continuing study and investigation of (1) the administration, operation, and enforcement of the Internal Security Act of 1950; (2) the administration, operation, and enforcement of other laws relating to espionage, sabotage, and the protection of the internal security of the United States; and (3) the extent, nature, and effects of subversive activities in the United States, its Territories and possessions, including, but not limited to, espionage, sabotage, and infiltration by persons who are or may be under the domination of the foreign government or organizations controlling the world Communist movement or any other movement seeking to overthrow the Government of the United States by force or violence.”

It is the government’s position that the duly authorized subcommittee, while in the lawful exercise of the powers conferred upon it by the pertinent resolutions, above mentioned, caused the defendant to appear before it on the 29th day of July, 1955, and again on the 15th day of September, 1955, to testify upon matters within her personal knowledge, or reasonably believed by the Subcommittee to be within her personal knowledge, which were pertinent to the subjects the Subcommittee had been charged [835]*835with the duty of investigating and studying in furtherance of the Congressional responsibilities in such areas of national concern. And, upon appearing before the Subcommittee on July 29th, defendant was asked questions, including the following, which she refused to answer upon being directed and ordered to do so by the presiding officer of the Subcommittee :

“Did you, or do you, know Herbert Philbrick?”
“Was your former husband at one time assistant director and instructor at the Samuel Adams School in Boston?”
“Where were you employed during that period of time?”
“Do you know anything about an organization called the International Workers Order?”

Defendant’s refusal to answer the respective questions gave rise to Counts 1 through 4 of the Indictment.

The precise questions which defendant refused to answer pursuant to the specific direction and order of the presiding officer of the Subcommittee on September 15, 1955, need not be set out in full in this opinion 1, it is enough for our purposes to determine that each of the questions, with the exceptions hereinafter noted, either appeared to be pertinent to the matters within the jurisdiction of the Subcommittee on the face of the questions or the government, by independent proof adduced at trial, proved the pertinency of such questions to the matters within the jurisdiction of the Subcommittee.

Defendant seeks to justify her refusal to answer the questions propounded to her, and which she was ordered and 'directed to answer by the presiding officer of the Subcommittee, upon the grounds that: (1) the questions she refused to answer pertained to her remote private thoughts and affiliations which the First Amendment protects from compulsory disclosure; (2) that she was not apprised of the precise subject under inquiry by the Subcommittee prior to, or at the time of, her appearances before it and was therefore unable to determine the pertinency of the questions asked to the subject under inquiry; (3) that the questions to which she refused to give answers were not pertinent to the inquiry then being conducted by the Subcommittee; and (4) that the purpose of the Subcommittee in calling her to testify was not to elicit information which might aid. legislation, but was merely to punish and chastise her in the public eye. Defendant does not contend that she was summoned in an unlawful manner to appear before the Subcommittee or that the Fifth Amendment justified her refusal to answer the questions asked of her.

The defendant is presumed to be innocent of the charges upon which she had been indicted. Such presumption remains with the defendant until the government proves beyond a reasonable doubt that, as to each Count of the Indictment, the defendant, while appearing as a witness before a duly authorized Congressional committee2, was directed and ordered to answer the interrogatory set out; that the specific question was pertinent to matters within the jurisdiction of the Committee then under investigation; that the investigation was in furtherance of a proper Congressional purpose; and, that the defendant refused to answer such interrogatory when so ordered and directed to do so. Quinn v. United States, 1950, 349 U.S. 155, 75 S.Ct. 668, 99 L.Ed. 964; Bowers v. United States, 1953, 92 U.S.App.D.C. 79, 202 F.2d 447.

The regularity of the proceedings creating the Subcommittee, the propriety of Congress inquiring' into those matters'placed within the jurisdiction of the Committee and Subcommittee by the enabling resolutions, and the lawfulness of the composition of the Subcommittee [836]*836before which defendant appeared and testified is stipulated. The transcript of the proceedings before the Subcommittee was introduced without objection. It clearly shows that defendant was asked each of the questions referred to in the Indictment on the dates therein alleged. The record also discloses that as to each of such questions the defendant'refused to give any answer after being ordered and directed to do so by the presiding officer of the Subcommittee. The elements of the charged’ offenses remaining, then, is whether each of the questions to which defendant refused to give answers were pertinent to the subjects within the jurisdiction of the Subcommittee, and, if so, whether the questions were in furtherance of a proper and lawful Congressional purpose, or sought to compel disclosure of private beliefs and affiliations protected by the First Amendment of the Federal Constitution.

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United States v. Shelton
148 F. Supp. 926 (District of Columbia, 1957)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
148 F. Supp. 832, 1957 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4120, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-knowles-cadc-1957.