Schneiderman v. United States
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''Schneiderman v. United States'', 320 U.S. 118 (1943), was a
U.S. 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 ...
case involving
denaturalization Denaturalization is the loss of citizenship against the will of the person concerned. Denaturalization is often applied to ethnic minorities and political dissidents. Denaturalization can be a penalty for actions considered criminal by the stat ...
. By a 5–3 vote, the justices rejected the federal government's attempt to denaturalize
William Schneiderman William V. Schneiderman (December 14, 1905 – January 29, 1985) was an American politician activist who was secretary for California in the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) and involved in two cases before the United States Supreme Court, ''Stack v. B ...
, a self-avowed communist. The Court held that "clear, unequivocal, and convincing" proof was required to revoke citizenship; it determined that there was insufficient evidence that Schneiderman was not "attached to the principles of the Constitution" as required by federal law.


Background

William Schneiderman was born in
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in 1905; he immigrated to the United States with his parents at age two. A member of communist groups throughout his early years, he joined the Worker's Party (which later became the
Communist Party of the United States The Communist Party USA, officially the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), is a communist party in the United States which was established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Revo ...
) in 1924. In 1927, Schneiderman became a naturalized citizen. He had never been charged with a crime, nor had there been any assertions of unlawful behavior on his part. Schneiderman remained committed to communism throughout the period, and in 1932 he ran on the Communist Party ticket for governor of Minnesota. In 1939, the federal government commenced
denaturalization Denaturalization is the loss of citizenship against the will of the person concerned. Denaturalization is often applied to ethnic minorities and political dissidents. Denaturalization can be a penalty for actions considered criminal by the stat ...
proceedings against him, arguing that his citizenship had been illegally procured because, as a communist, Schneiderman had not been "attached to the principles of the Constitution of the United States", as required by the
Naturalization Act of 1906 The Naturalization Act of 1906 was an act of the United States Congress signed into law by Theodore Roosevelt that revised the Naturalization Act of 1870 and required immigrants to learn English in order to become naturalized citizens. The bill w ...
. A California federal court agreed and denaturalized Schneiderman. The court found that he supported communist principles, such as the abolition of private property, that were inherently contrary to the Constitution; it also concluded that he supported the use of "methods of force and violence" to carry out those goals. On appeal, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed, listing the Communist Party's beliefs and asserting that " is obvious that these views are not those of our Constitution". Schneiderman appealed the case to the Supreme Court of the United States, which heard the case on November 9, 1942. He was represented pro bono by
Wendell Willkie Wendell Lewis Willkie (born Lewis Wendell Willkie; February 18, 1892 – October 8, 1944) was an American lawyer, corporate executive and the 1940 Republican nominee for President. Willkie appealed to many convention delegates as the Republican ...
, a previous
Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
candidate for president; Solicitor General Charles Fahy argued on behalf of the government. The case was initially heard by only seven justices: one seat was vacant and Justice Robert H. Jackson was recused due to his previous service as Attorney General. After Wiley Rutledge was appointed to fill the vacant seat, the Court reheard the case to enable him to participate.


Decision


Majority opinion

Justice
Frank Murphy William Francis Murphy (April 13, 1890July 19, 1949) was an American politician, lawyer and jurist from Michigan. He was a Democrat who was named to the Supreme Court of the United States in 1940 after a political career that included serving ...
delivered the opinion of the Court, which was joined by Justices
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,
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, Douglas, and Rutledge, on June 21, 1943. Disagreeing with the government's arguments, the Court reversed the lower courts' rulings. Murphy reasoned that one could be attached to the Constitution's principles without agreeing with each one of its provisions. Citing the
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's free-expression protections and Article V's constitutional-amendment process, he wrote that " e constitutional fathers, fresh from a revolution, did not forge a political straight-jacket for the generations to come....As Justice
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said, 'Surely it cannot show lack of attachment to the principles of the Constitution that nethinks it can be improved.'" Next, the justices rejected the Justice Department's contention that Schneiderman's membership in the Communist Party meant that he supported overthrowing the government by force. Discussing in detail the writings of various communist leaders, Murphy determined that the Communist Party did not unequivocally favor actual violence against the government. Finally, the Court determined that, in light of the First Amendment, "clear, unequivocal, and convincing" proof was necessary to denaturalize a citizen.{{Cite book, last=Wiecek, first=William M., url=https://archive.org/details/birthofmoderncon0000wie2, title=The Birth of the Modern Constitution: The United States Supreme Court, 1941{{endash1953, publisher=Cambridge University Press, year=2006, isbn=978-0-521-84820-6, location=New York, N.Y., pages=293{{endash297 Murphy determined that, in Schneiderman's case, the government had not met that high standard of proof.


Concurrences

Two justices filed concurring opinions: Justices Douglas and Rutledge. Douglas argued that naturalization should only be revoked on illegal-procurement grounds in cases in which no finding of attachment had been made in the first place, not in cases in which "another judge would appraise the evidence differently". Rutledge expressed concern that the government was attempting to revoke Schneiderman's citizenship so long after his naturalization. According to Rutledge, "no citizen with such a threat hanging over his head could be free".


Dissent

In an opinion joined by Justices Roberts and Frankfurter, Chief Justice Harlan F. Stone stridently dissented. He argued that the majority failed to give adequate deference to the district court's factual findings. Although Stone accepted arguendo Murphy's "clear, unequivocal, and convincing" standard, he concluded that the government had met it. In Stone's view, the record showed that Schneiderman was "well aware that he was a member of and aiding a party which taught and advocated the overthrow of the Government of the United States by force and violence."


Impact and legacy

The decision attracted immediate contemporary attention. Major newspapers took various views of the ruling: the '' St. Louis Star-Times'' praised it as "a triumph for American principles of freedom and justice", while ''
The Philadelphia Inquirer ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper's circulation is the largest in both the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley metropolitan region of Southeastern Pennsy ...
'' criticized "its weakening effect on the safeguards which the Government seeks to establish against subversive elements". The perspectives presented in
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were generally hostile to the Court's decision. In later years, the ruling had a substantial impact on the law. Its high burden of proof reduced the number of denaturalization cases, while its rejection of "guilt by association" was cited in later cases involving the Communist Party. Schneiderman himself, meanwhile, had not seen the last of the Supreme Court: after being convicted in 1952 of conspiracy to violate the
Smith Act The Alien Registration Act, popularly known as the Smith Act, 76th United States Congress, 3d session, ch. 439, , is a United States federal statute that was enacted on June 28, 1940. It set criminal penalties for advocating the overthrow of th ...
, the Court again ruled in his favor in the influential case of '' Yates v. United States''.


References

United States Supreme Court cases United States Supreme Court cases of the Stone Court 1943 in United States case law United States immigration and naturalization case law Communism in the United States