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Deutch v. United States, 367 U.S. 456 (1961)
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General SummaryThis case is from a collection containing the full text of over 16,000 Supreme Court cases from 1793 to the present. The body of Supreme Court decisions are, effectively, the final interpretation of the Constitution. Only an amendment to the Constitution can permanently overturn an interpretation and this has happened only four times in American history.
Deutch v. United States, 367 U.S. 456 (1961)
Deutch v. United States No. 233 Argued March 22-23, 1961 Decided June 12, 1961 367 U.S. 456
CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT
Syllabus
Summoned to testify before a Subcommittee of the House of Representatives Committee on Un-American Activities, which was investigating Communist Party activities in the Albany, N.Y., area, petitioner, who had not attended the hearings in Albany and was questioned in Washington, D.C., freely answered questions about his own Communist activities at Cornell University and Ithaca, N.Y., but he refused to name persons with whom he had been associated in such activities there. He was convicted of a violation of 2 U.S.C. § 192, which makes it a misdemeanor for any person summoned as a witness by a congressional committee to refuse to answer any question pertinent to the question under inquiry. At his trial, in an effort to prove the pertinency of the questions he refused to answer, the Government offered documentary evidence of statements made by the Chairman of the Subcommittee at the hearings in Albany, which tended to show that the subject of those hearings was Communist infiltration in the Albany area, particularly in the field of labor, and one witness testified that petitioner’s hearing was a continuation of the Albany hearings, that the subject of those hearings was Communist infiltration in the Albany area, and that the topic under inquiry was not Communism either at Cornell or in educational institutions generally. It also introduced transcripts of the testimony of two witnesses at the Albany hearings who, in addition to testifying about Communist infiltration into labor unions in the Albany area, had been led into some testimony about Communist activities by petitioner and others at Cornell.
Held: on the record in this case, the Government failed to prove an essential element of the offense, that the questions which petitioner refused to answer were pertinent to the subject under inquiry, and his conviction must be set aside. Pp. 457-472.
108 U.S.App.D.C. 143, 280 F. 2d 691, reversed.
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Chicago: U.S. Supreme Court, "Syllabus," Deutch v. United States, 367 U.S. 456 (1961) in 367 U.S. 456 367 U.S. 457. Original Sources, accessed November 24, 2024, http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=NC6EXJPLGU2HXD2.
MLA: U.S. Supreme Court. "Syllabus." Deutch v. United States, 367 U.S. 456 (1961), in 367 U.S. 456, page 367 U.S. 457. Original Sources. 24 Nov. 2024. http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=NC6EXJPLGU2HXD2.
Harvard: U.S. Supreme Court, 'Syllabus' in Deutch v. United States, 367 U.S. 456 (1961). cited in 1961, 367 U.S. 456, pp.367 U.S. 457. Original Sources, retrieved 24 November 2024, from http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=NC6EXJPLGU2HXD2.
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