''Garner v. Board of Public Works'', 341 U.S. 716 (1951), is a ruling by the
United States Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
which held that a municipal loyalty oath which required an oath and affidavit about one's beliefs and actions for the previous five years and which was enacted more than five years previous is not an
ex post facto law
An ''ex post facto'' law (from ) is a law that retroactively changes the legal consequences (or status) of actions that were committed, or relationships that existed, before the enactment of the law. In criminal law, it may Criminalization, crim ...
nor a
bill of attainder
A bill of attainder (also known as an act of attainder or writ of attainder or bill of penalties) is an act of a legislature declaring a person, or a group of people, guilty of some crime, and punishing them, often without a trial. As with attai ...
.
Background
In 1941, the
California State Legislature
The California State Legislature is a bicameral state legislature consisting of a lower house, the California State Assembly, with 80 members; and an upper house, the California State Senate, with 40 members. Both houses of the Legisla ...
amended the
charter
A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the rec ...
of the city of
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
so that no person could obtain or retain public employment with the city if they advocated the violent overthrow of either the state or federal government, belonged to any organization that did so advocate, or had advocated or been a member of an organization which advocated such action in the last five years. In 1948, the city of Los Angeles passed
local ordinance
A local ordinance is a law issued by a local government. such as a municipality, county, parish, prefecture, or the like.
China
In Hong Kong, all laws enacted by the territory's Legislative Council remain to be known as ''Ordinances'' () af ...
No, 94,004, which required all employees to take the loyalty oath.
Fifteen employees with the Los Angeles Board of Public Works refused to execute the required affidavit. At an administrative hearing on January 6, 1949, all 15 individuals were fired. They sued for back pay and reinstatement in their jobs, claiming that the oath and the affidavit they were required to execute constituted a
bill of attainder
A bill of attainder (also known as an act of attainder or writ of attainder or bill of penalties) is an act of a legislature declaring a person, or a group of people, guilty of some crime, and punishing them, often without a trial. As with attai ...
and an
ex post facto law
An ''ex post facto'' law (from ) is a law that retroactively changes the legal consequences (or status) of actions that were committed, or relationships that existed, before the enactment of the law. In criminal law, it may Criminalization, crim ...
. The District Court of Appeals denied relief.
The petitioners then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which granted
certiorari
In law, ''certiorari'' is a court process to seek judicial review of a decision of a lower court or government agency. ''Certiorari'' comes from the name of an English prerogative writ, issued by a superior court to direct that the record of ...
.
Decision
Majority opinion
Associate Justice
Associate justice or associate judge (or simply associate) is a judicial panel member who is not the chief justice in some jurisdictions. The title "Associate Justice" is used for members of the Supreme Court of the United States and some state ...
Tom C. Clark
Thomas Campbell Clark (September 23, 1899June 13, 1977) was an American lawyer who served as the 59th United States Attorney General from 1945 to 1949 and as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1949 to 1967.
Clark ...
wrote the opinion for the majority.
Clark discussed the oath and the affidavit separately. In three sentences, Clark held that since past actions and beliefs may impugn present fitness for duty, the affidavit was justified. The question for the oath (which reached back five years into the past) was its constitutionality, and here Clark relied heavily on ''
United Public Workers v. Mitchell
''United Public Workers v. Mitchell'', 330 U.S. 75 (1947), is a 4-to-3 ruling by the United States Supreme Court which held that the Hatch Act of 1939, as amended in 1940, does not violate the First, Fifth, Ninth, or Tenth amendments to U.S. Co ...
'', 330 U.S. 75 (1947), to answer that the oath was valid. Since the charter change had occurred seven years before, and the oath reached back only five years, the oath was also not a bill of attainder or ex post facto law. Clark distinguished ''
United States v. Lovett
''United States v. Lovett'', 328 U.S. 303 (1946), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that Congress may not forbid the payment of a salary to a specific individual, as it would constitute an unconstitutional bill of atta ...
'', 328 U.S. 303 (1946), which was not a general law establishing qualifications for office but which specifically named certain individuals and required their separation from government service.
[''Garner v. Board of Public Works'', 341 U.S. 716, 723.]
Petitioners had argued that the charter amendment required ''
scienter
In law, (Law Latin for "knowingly", ) is a legal term for intent or knowledge of wrongdoing. An offending party then has knowledge of the "wrongness" of an act or event prior to committing it.
For example, if a man sells a car with brakes that d ...
'' (knowledge that the organizations they belonged to did, in fact, advocate the violent overthrow of the government or a communist political philosophy). Clark assumed that the city would not implement the law in such a way as to punish those individuals who lacked ''scienter'', and assumed that ''scienter'' was implicit in the ordinance.
The decision of the District Court of Appeals was affirmed.
Frankfurter's dissent
Associate Justice
Felix Frankfurter
Felix Frankfurter (November 15, 1882 – February 22, 1965) was an Austrian-American jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1939 until 1962, during which period he was a noted advocate of judicia ...
concurred in part and dissented in part.
Frankfurter noted in his dissent that the majority had repeatedly referred to public employment as a privilege, which to his mind invoked the "doctrine of privilege." Invoking this doctrine, he concluded "does not meet the problem."
But Frankfurter was unable to agree that the Los Angeles ordinance implied ''scienter.'' He wrote: "To find scienter implied in a criminal statute is the obvious way of reading such a statute, for guilty knowledge is the normal ingredient of criminal responsibility. The ordinance before us exacts an oath as a condition of employment; it does not define a crime. It is certainly not open to this Court to rewrite the oath required by Los Angeles of its employees..." The lack of an explicit requirement for ''scienter'' in the law, he concluded, asked the employees "to swear to something they cannot be expected to know. Such a demand ... can no more be justified than the inquiry into belief which
as/nowiki> invalid in ''American Communications Association v. Douds
''American Communications Association v. Douds'', 339 U.S. 382 (1950), is a 5-to-1 ruling by the United States Supreme Court which held that the Taft–Hartley Act's imposition of an anti-communist oath on labor union leaders does not violate the ...
'', 339 U.S. 382 (1950)."
Frankfurter would have remanded the case back to the state court with instructions that the petitioners be allowed to take the oath under the ''scienter'' requirement imposed by the Court.
Burton's dissent
Associate Justice Harold Hitz Burton dissented in part. Under the Court's decisions in ''United States v. Lovett,'' ''Ex parte Garland
''Ex parte Garland'', 71 U.S. (4 Wall.) 333 (1866), was an important United States Supreme Court case involving the disbarment of former Confederate officials.
Background
In January 1865, the US Congress passed a law that effectively disbarred for ...
'', 71 U.S. 333 (1867), and ''Cummings v. Missouri Cummings may refer to:
Places Canada
* Cummings, Saskatchewan, an unincorporated hamlet
United States
* Cummings, Mendocino County, California, an unincorporated community
* Cummings, Kansas
* Cummings, North Dakota, an unincorporated commu ...
'', 71 U.S. 277 (1867), Burton concluded, the oath as currently framed was an ''ex post facto'' law and a bill of attainder. However, Burton would have affirmed the lower court concerning the judgment regarding the two employees who had refused to sign the affidavit. The affidavit merely represented an assertion of true facts, Burton said, and as such could be required of the employees.
Douglas' dissent
Associate Justice William O. Douglas dissented, joined by Associate Justice Hugo Black.
Douglas concluded that the entire case was governed by the decisions in ''Ex parte Garland'' and ''Cummings v. Missouri''. A bill of attainder as defined in these cases inflicts punishment without a judicial trial, and may be inflicted against an individual ''or'' a class (contrary to the majority's conclusion that it applies only to an individual). That ''Garland'' and ''Cummings'' involved professionals rather than laborers and that ''Garland'' and ''Cummings'' involved vague accusations of misconduct rather than the single specific accusation in ''Garner'' was irrelevant, Douglas said. Since the Los Angeles ordinance permitted no hearing, it was a bill of attainder and not constitutionally valid.
Douglas did not reach the issue of whether the ordinance was an ex post facto law.
Black's dissent
Justice Black further dissented from the majority by making two additional points. First, he argued that the majority mischaracterized the decision in ''Gerende v. Board of Supervisors.'' The Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
law in ''Gerende'' was limited to actual acts of violence or overthrow, while the Los Angeles ordinance was not. Second, Black believed that the majority's decision in ''Garner'' significantly weakened the Court's holdings in ''Ex parte Garland'', ''Cummings v. Missouri'', and ''United States v. Lovett''.[''Garner v. Board of Public Works'', 341 U.S. 716, 730-731.]
See also
*
*List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 341
This is a list of all the United States Supreme Court cases from volume 341 of the ''United States Reports
The ''United States Reports'' () are the official record ( law reports) of the Supreme Court of the United States. They include rulings, ...
Footnotes
Bibliography
*Rosenbloom, David and O'Leary, Rosemary. ''Public Administration and Law.'' 2d ed. Washington, D.C.: CRC Press, 1996.
External links
*
{{US1stAmendment, speech, state=expanded
1951 in United States case law
United States Constitution Article One case law
United States Supreme Court cases
United States Supreme Court cases of the Vinson Court
United States Free Speech Clause case law
United States elections case law
History of Los Angeles
United States ex post facto case law
Oaths of allegiance