PETITE v. UNITED STATES.
No. 45.
Decided February 23, 1960.
Edward Bennett Williams, Raymond W. Bergan and Agnes A. Neill for petitioner.
Solicitor "General Rankin, Assistant Attorney General Wilkey, Wayne. G. Barnett, Beatrice Rosenberg and .Jerome M. Feit for the United States.
Per Curiam.
Petitioner was indicted, with others, in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, for conspiring to make false statements to an' agency of the United States at hearings held in Philadelphia and Baltimore under proceedings for the deportation of an alien. Petitioner was also separately indicted for suborning perjury at the Philadelphia hearings. Petitioner’s co-defendants pleaded • guilty to the conspiracy charged. Petitioner went to trial on both indictments, but at the close of the Government’s case he changed his plea to nolo contendere to the conspiracy charge, and the Government dismissed the subornation indictment. He was fined $500 and sentenced to two months’ imprisonment, which he served. 'Petitioner was subsequently indicted in the District of Maryland for suborning' the perjury of two witnesses at the Baltimore hearings. Among the overt acts which, had been relied upon in the Pennsylvania conspiracy indictment was the testimony of these two witnesses. ' Because of this, petitioner .moved to dismiss the Maryland indictment on the ground of double jeopardy, but his motion was denied, 147 F. Supp. 791, and the conviction which resulted was affirmed by the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, 262 F. 2d 788.
Thereupon a petition- for a writ of certiorari was filed with the double jeopardy issue as the single question presented, and certiorari was granted. 360 U. S. 908. The Government-did-not oppose the granting of this petition, but informed the Court that the case was' under consideration by the Department of Justice to determine whether the second prosecution in the District of Maryland was consistent with the sound policy of the Department in discharging its .responsibility for the control of government litigation wholly apart from the question of the legal validity of the claim of double jeopardy.
In due course the Government filed this motion for an order vacating the judgment below and remanding the case to the United States District Court for the District of Maryland with directions to dismiss the indictment. It did so on the ground that it is the general policy of the Federal Government “that several offenses arising out of a single transaction should be alleged and tried tqgether and should not be made the basis of multiple prosecutions, a policy dictated by considerations both of fairness to defendants and of efficient and orderly law enforcement.” The Solicitor General on behalf of the Government represents this policy as closely related to that against duplicating federal-state prosecutions, which was formally defined by the Attorney General of the United States in a memorandum to the United States Attorneys. (Department of Justice Press Release, Apr. 6,1959.) Counsel for petitioner “joins in and consents” to the Government’s motion.
The ca'se is remanded to the Court of Appeals to vacate its judgment and to direct the District Court to vacate. its judgment and to dismiss the indictment. In the interest of justice, the Court is clearly empowered thus to dispose of the matter, 28 U. S. C. § 2106, and we do so with due regard for the settled rule that the Court will not “anticipate a question of constitutional law in ádvance of the necessity of deciding it.” Liverpool, New York & Philadelphia S. S. Co. v. Commissioners of Emigration, 113 U. S. 33, 39. By thus disposing of the matter, we are of course not to be understood as remotely intimating in any degree an opinion on the question of double jeopardy sought to be presented by the petition for certiorari.
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states.
Criminal Procedure Civil Rights First Amendment Due Process Privacy Attorneys Unions Economic Activity Judicial Power Federalism Interstate Relations Federal Taxation Miscellaneous Private Action