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U.S. Supreme Court
MARCHETTI v. UNITED STATES, 390 U.S. 39 (1968)
390 U.S. 39
MARCHETTI v. UNITED STATES.
CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT.
No. 2.
Argued January 17-18, 1967. Reargued October 10, 1967.
Decided January 29, 1968.
Petitioner was convicted for conspiring to evade payment of the occupational tax
relating to wagers imposed by 26 U.S.C. 4411, for evading such payment, and for failing to
comply with 4412, which requires those liable for the occupational tax to register
annually with the Internal Revenue Service and to supply detailed information for which a
special form is prescribed. Under other provisions of the interrelated statutory system
for taxing wagers, registrants must "conspicuously" post at their business
places or keep on their persons stamps showing payment of the tax; maintain daily wagering
records; and keep their books open for inspection. Payment of the occupational taxes is
declared not to exempt persons from federal or state laws which broadly proscribe
wagering, and federal tax authorities are required by 6107 to furnish prosecuting officers
lists of those who have paid the occupational tax. Petitioner, whose alleged wagering
activities subjected him to possible state or federal prosecution, contended that the
statutory requirements to register and to pay the occupational tax violated his privilege
against self-incrimination. The Court of Appeals affirmed, relying on United States v.
Kahriger, 345 U.S. 22, and Lewis v. United States, 348 U.S. 419, which held the privilege
unavailable in a situation like the one here involved. Held:
1. The recognized principle that taxes may be imposed upon unlawful activities is not
at issue here. P. 44.
2. Petitioner's assertion of his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination
barred his prosecution for violating the federal wagering tax statutes. Pp. 48-61.
(a) All the requirements for registration and payment of the occupational tax would
have had the direct and unmistakable consequence of incriminating petitioner. Pp. 48-49.
(b) Petitioner did not waive his constitutional privilege by failing to assert it when
the tax payments were due. Pp. 50-51.
(c) United States v. Kahriger, supra, Lewis v. United States, supra, both pro tanto
overruled. Pp. 50-54. [390 U.S. 39, 40]
(d) The premises supporting Shapiro v. United States, 335 U.S. 1 (viz., that the
records be analogous to public documents and of a kind which the regulated party has
customarily kept, and that the statutory requirements be essentially regulatory rather
than aimed at a particular group suspected of criminal activities), do not apply to the
facts of this case and therefore Shapiro's "required records" doctrine is not
controlling. Pp. 55-57.
(e) Permitting continued enforcement of the registration and occupational tax
provisions by imposing restrictions against the use by prosecuting authorities of
information obtained thereunder might improperly contravene Congress' purpose in adopting
the wagering taxes and impede enforcement of state gambling laws. Pp. 58-60.
352 F.2d 848, reversed.
Jacob D. Zeldes reargued the cause for petitioner. With him on the brief on the
reargument were David Goldstein, Elaine S. Amendola, Francis J. King and Ira B. Grudberg,
and on the original argument Messrs. Goldstein, King and Grudberg.
Francis X. Beytagh, Jr., reargued the cause for the United States, pro hac vice. With
him on the brief on the reargument were Acting Solicitor General Spritzer, Assistant
Attorney General Vinson, Beatrice Rosenberg and Jerome M. Feit, and on the original
argument Solicitor General Marshall, Assistant Attorney General Vinson, Miss Rosenberg and
Theodore George Gilinsky.
MR. JUSTICE HARLAN delivered the opinion of the Court.
Petitioner was convicted in the United States District Court for the District of
Connecticut under two indictments which charged violations of the federal wagering tax
statutes. The first indictment averred that petitioner and others conspired to evade
payment of the annual occupational tax imposed by 26 U.S.C. 4411. The second indictment
included two counts: the first [390 U.S. 39, 41]
alleged a willful failure to pay the occupational tax, and the second a willful failure to
register, as required by 26 U.S.C. 4412, before engaging in the business of accepting
wagers.
After verdict, petitioner unsuccessfully sought to arrest judgment, in part on the
basis that the statutory obligations to register and to pay the occupational tax violated
his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. The Court of Appeals for the
Second Circuit affirmed, 352 F.2d 848, on the authority of United States v. Kahriger, 345
U.S. 22, and Lewis v. United States, 348 U.S. 419.
We granted certiorari to re-examine the constitutionality under the
Fifth Amendment of the pertinent provisions of the wagering tax statutes, and more
particularly to consider whether Kahriger and Lewis still have vitality.1 383 U.S. 942.
For reasons which follow, we have [390 U.S. 39, 42]
concluded that these provisions may not be employed to punish criminally those persons who
have defended a failure to comply with their requirements with a proper assertion of the
privilege against self-incrimination. The judgment below is accordingly reversed.
I.
The provisions in issue here are part of an interrelated statutory system for taxing
wagers. The system is broadly as follows. Section 4401 of Title 26 imposes upon those
engaged in the business of accepting wagers an excise tax of 10% on the gross amount of
all wagers they accept, including the value of chances purchased in lotteries conducted
for profit. Parimutuel wagering enterprises, coin-operated devices, and state-conducted
sweepstakes are expressly excluded from taxation. 26 U.S.C. 4402 (1964 ed., Supp. II).
Section 4411 imposes in addition an occupational tax of $50 annually, both upon those
subject to taxation under 4401 and upon those who receive wagers on their behalf.
The taxes are supplemented by ancillary provisions calculated to assure their
collection. In particular, 4412 requires those liable for the occupational tax to register
each year with the director of their local internal revenue district. The registrants must
submit Internal Revenue Service Form 11-C,2 and upon it must provide their residence and
business addresses, must indicate whether they are engaged in the business of accepting
wagers, and must list the names and addresses of their agents and employees. The statutory
obligations to register [390 U.S. 39, 43] and to
pay the occupational tax are essentially inseparable elements of a single registration
procedure;3 Form 11-C thus constitutes both the application for registration and the
return for the occupational tax.4
In addition, registrants are obliged to post the revenue stamps which
denote payment of the occupational tax "conspicuously" in their principal places
of business, or, if they lack such places, to keep the stamps on their persons, and to
exhibit them upon demand to any Treasury officer. 26 U.S.C. 6806 (c). They are required to
preserve daily records indicating the gross amount of the wagers as to which they are
liable for taxation, and to permit inspection of their books of account. 26 U.S.C. 4403,
4423. Moreover, each principal internal revenue office is instructed to maintain for
public inspection a listing of all who have paid the occupational tax, and to provide
certified copies of the listing upon request to any state or local prosecuting officer. 26
U.S.C. 6107. [390 U.S. 39, 44] Finally, payment of
the wagering taxes is declared not to "exempt any person from any penalty provided by
a law of the United States or of any State for engaging" in any taxable activity. 26
U.S.C. 4422.
II.
The issue before us is not whether the United States may tax activities which a State
or Congress has declared unlawful. The Court has repeatedly indicated that the
unlawfulness of an activity does not prevent its taxation, and nothing that follows is
intended to limit or diminish the vitality of those cases. See, e. g., License Tax Cases,
5 Wall. 462. The issue is instead whether the methods employed by Congress in the federal
wagering tax statutes are, in this situation, consistent with the limitations created by
the privilege against self-incrimination guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment. We must for
this purpose first examine the implications of these statutory provisions.
Wagering and its ancillary activities are very widely prohibited under both federal and
state law. Federal statutes impose criminal penalties upon the interstate transmission of
wagering information, 18 U.S.C. 1084; upon interstate and foreign travel or transportation
in aid of racketeering enterprises, defined to include gambling, 18 U.S.C. 1952; upon
lotteries conducted through use of the mails or broadcasting, 18 U.S.C. 1301-1304; and
upon the interstate transportation of wagering paraphernalia, 18 U.S.C. 1953.
State and local enactments are more comprehensive. The laws of every State, except
Nevada, include broad prohibitions against gambling, wagering, and associated activities.5
Every State forbids, with essentially minor [390 U.S. 39,
45] and carefully circumscribed exceptions, lotteries.6 Even Nevada, which permits
many forms of gambling, retains criminal penalties upon lotteries and certain other
wagering [390 U.S. 39, 46] activities taxable under
these statutes. Nev. Rev. Stat. 293.603, 462.010-462.080, 465.010 (1957).
Connecticut, in which petitioner allegedly conducted his activities, has adopted a
variety of measures for the punishment of gambling and wagering. It punishes "[a]ny
person, whether as principal, agent or servant, who owns, possesses, keeps, manages,
maintains or occupies" premises employed for purposes of wagering or pool selling.
Conn. Gen. Stat. Rev. 53-295 (1958). It imposes criminal penalties upon any person who
possesses, keeps, or maintains premises in which policy playing occurs, or lotteries are
conducted, and upon any [390 U.S. 39, 47] person
who becomes the custodian of books, property, appliances, or apparatus employed for
wagering. Conn. Gen. Stat. Rev. 53-298 (1958). See also 53-273, 53-290, 53-293. It
provides additional penalties for those who conspire to organize or conduct unlawful
wagering activities. Conn. Gen. Stat. Rev. 54-197 (1958). Every aspect of petitioner's
wagering activities thus subjected him to possible state or federal prosecution. By any
standard, in Connecticut and throughout the United States, wagering is "an area
permeated with criminal statutes," and those engaged in wagering are a group
"inherently suspect of criminal activities." Albertson v. SACB, 382 U.S. 70, 79.
Information obtained as a consequence of the federal wagering tax laws is readily
available to assist the efforts of state and federal authorities to enforce these
penalties. Section 6107 of Title 26 requires the principal internal revenue offices to
provide to prosecuting officers a listing of those who have paid the occupational tax.
Section 6806 (c) obliges taxpayers either to post the revenue stamp
"conspicuously" in their principal places of business, or to keep it on their
persons, and to produce it on the demand of Treasury officers. Evidence of the possession
of a federal wagering tax stamp, or of payment of the wagering taxes, has often been
admitted at trial in state and federal prosecutions for gambling offenses;7 such evidence
has doubtless proved useful even more frequently to lead prosecuting authorities to other
evidence upon which convictions have subsequently [390
U.S. 39, 48] been obtained.8 Finally, we are obliged to notice that a former
Commissioner of Internal Revenue has acknowledged that the Service "makes
available" to law enforcement agencies the names and addresses of those who have paid
the wagering taxes, and that it is in "full cooperation" with the efforts of the
Attorney General of the United States to suppress organized gambling. Caplin, The Gambling
Business and Federal Taxes, 8 Crime & Delin. 371, 372, 377.
In these circumstances, it can scarcely be denied that the obligations to register and
to pay the occupational tax created for petitioner "real and appreciable," and
not merely "imaginary and unsubstantial," hazards of self-incrimination. Reg. v.
Boyes, 1 B. & S. 311, 330; Brown v. Walker, 161 U.S. 591, 599-600; Rogers v. United
States, 340 U.S. 367, 374. Petitioner was confronted by a comprehensive system of federal
and state prohibitions against wagering activities; he was required, on pain of criminal
prosecution, to provide information which he might reasonably suppose would be available
to prosecuting authorities, and which would surely prove a significant "link in a
chain"9 of evidence tending to establish his guilt.10 Unlike the income tax return [390 U.S. 39, 49] in question in United States v.
Sullivan, 274 U.S. 259, every portion of these requirements had the direct and
unmistakable consequence of incriminating petitioner; the application of the
constitutional privilege to the entire registration procedure was in this instance neither
"extreme" nor "extravagant." See id., at 263. It would appear to
follow that petitioner's assertion of the privilege as a defense to this prosecution was
entirely proper, and accordingly should have sufficed to prevent his conviction.
Nonetheless, this Court has twice concluded that the privilege against
self-incrimination may not appropriately be asserted by those in petitioner's
circumstances. United States v. Kahriger, supra; Lewis v. United States, supra. We must
therefore consider whether those cases have continuing force in light of our more recent
decisions. Moreover, we must also consider the relevance of certain collateral lines of
authority; in particular, we must determine whether either the "required
records" doctrine, Shapiro v. United States, 335 U.S. 1, or restrictions placed upon
the use by prosecuting authorities of information obtained as a consequence of the
wagering taxes, cf. Murphy v. Waterfront Commission, 378 U.S. 52, should be utilized to
preclude assertion of the constitutional privilege in this situation. To these questions
we turn. [390 U.S. 39, 50]
III.
The Court's opinion in Kahriger suggested that a defendant under indictment for willful
failure to register under 4412 cannot properly challenge the constitutionality under the
Fifth Amendment of the registration requirement. For this point, the Court relied entirely
upon Mr. Justice Holmes' opinion for the Court in United States v. Sullivan, supra. The
taxpayer in Sullivan was convicted of willful failure to file an income tax return,
despite his contention that the return would have obliged him to admit violations of the
National Prohibition Act. The Court affirmed the conviction, and rejected the taxpayer's
claim of the privilege. It concluded that most of the return's questions would not have
compelled the taxpayer to make incriminating disclosures, and that it would have been
"an extreme if not an extravagant application" of the privilege to permit him to
draw within it the entire return. 274 U.S., at 263.
The Court in Sullivan was evidently concerned, first, that the claim before it was an
unwarranted extension of the scope of the privilege, and, second, that to accept a claim
of privilege not asserted at the time the return was due would "make the taxpayer
rather than a tribunal the final arbiter of the merits of the claim." Albertson v.
SACB, 382 U.S. 70, 79. Neither reason suffices to prevent this petitioner's assertion of
the privilege. The first is, as we have indicated, inapplicable, and we find the second
unpersuasive in this situation. Every element of these requirements would have served to
incriminate petitioner; to have required him to present his claim to Treasury officers
would have obliged him "to prove guilt to avoid admitting it." United States v.
Kahriger, supra, at 34 (concurring opinion). In these circumstances, we cannot conclude
that his failure [390 U.S. 39, 51] to assert the
privilege to Treasury officials at the moment the tax payments were due irretrievably
abandoned his constitutional protection. Petitioner is under sentence for violation of
statutory requirements which he consistently asserted at and after trial to be
unconstitutional; no more can here be required.
The Court held in Lewis that the registration and occupational tax requirements do not
infringe the constitutional privilege because they do not compel self-incrimination, but
merely impose on the gambler the initial choice of whether he wishes, at the cost of his
constitutional privilege, to commence wagering activities. The Court reasoned that even if
the required disclosures might prove incriminating, the gambler need not register or pay
the occupational tax if only he elects to cease, or never to begin, gambling. There is,
the Court said, "no constitutional right to gamble." 348 U.S., at 423.
We find this reasoning no longer persuasive. The question is not whether petitioner
holds a "right" to violate state law, but whether, having done so, he may be
compelled to give evidence against himself. The constitutional privilege was intended to
shield the guilty and imprudent as well as the innocent and foresighted; if such an
inference of antecedent choice were alone enough to abrogate the privilege's protection,
it would be excluded from the situations in which it has historically been guaranteed, and
withheld from those who most require it. Such inferences, bottomed on what must ordinarily
be a fiction, have precisely the infirmities which the Court has found in other
circumstances in which implied or uniformed waivers of the privilege have been said to
have occurred. See, e. g., Carnley v. Cochran, 369 U.S. 506. Compare Johnson v. Zerbst,
304 U.S. 458; and Glasser v. United States, 315 U.S. 60. To give credence to such
"waivers" without the most deliberate examination of the circumstances
surrounding them [390 U.S. 39, 52] would ultimately
license widespread erosion of the privilege through "ingeniously drawn
legislation." Morgan, The Privilege against Self-Incrimination, 34 Minn. L. Rev. 1,
37. We cannot agree that the constitutional privilege is meaningfully waived merely
because those "inherently suspect of criminal activities" have been commanded
either to cease wagering or to provide information incriminating to themselves, and have
ultimately elected to do neither.
The Court held in both Kahriger and Lewis that the registration and occupational tax
requirements are entirely prospective in their application, and that the constitutional
privilege, since it offers protection only as to past and present acts, is accordingly
unavailable. This reasoning appears to us twice deficient: first, it overlooks the hazards
here of incrimination as to past or present acts; and second, it is hinged upon an
excessively narrow view of the scope of the constitutional privilege.
Substantial hazards of incrimination as to past or present acts plainly may stem from
the requirements to register and to pay the occupational tax. See generally McKee, The
Fifth Amendment and the Federal Gambling Tax, 5 Duke B. J. 86. In the first place,
satisfaction of those requirements increases the likelihood that any past or present
gambling offenses will be discovered and successfully prosecuted. It both centers
attention upon the registrant as a gambler, and compels "injurious
disclosure[s]"11 which may provide or assist in the collection of evidence admissible
in a prosecution for past or present offenses. These offenses need not include actual
gambling; they might involve only the custody or transportation of gambling paraphernalia,
or other preparations for future gambling. Further, the acquisition of a federal gambling
tax stamp, [390 U.S. 39, 53] requiring as it does
the declaration of a present intent to commence gambling activities, obliges even a
prospective gambler to accuse himself of conspiracy to violate either state gambling
prohibitions, or federal laws forbidding the use of interstate facilities for gambling
purposes. See, e. g., Acklen v. State, 196 Tenn. 314, 267 S. W. 2d 101.
There is a second, and more fundamental, deficiency in the reasoning of Kahriger and
Lewis. Its linchpin is plainly the premise that the privilege is entirely inapplicable to
prospective acts; for this the Court in Kahriger could vouch as authority only a
generalization at 8 Wigmore, Evidence 2259c (3d ed. 1940).12 We see no warrant for so
rigorous a constraint upon the constitutional privilege. History, to be sure, offers no
ready illustrations of the privilege's application to prospective acts, but the occasions
on which such claims might appropriately have been made must necessarily have been very
infrequent. We are, in any event, bid to view the constitutional commands as "organic
living institutions," whose significance is "vital not formal." Gompers v.
United States, 233 U.S. 604, 610.
The central standard for the privilege's application has been whether the claimant is
confronted by substantial and "real," and not merely trifling or imaginary,
hazards of incrimination. Rogers v. United States, 340 U.S. 367, 374; Brown v. Walker, 161
U.S. 591, 600. This principle does not permit the rigid chronological distinction adopted
in Kahriger and Lewis. We see [390 U.S. 39, 54] no
reason to suppose that the force of the constitutional prohibition is diminished merely
because confession of a guilty purpose precedes the act which it is subsequently employed
to evidence. Yet, if the factual situations in which the privilege may be claimed were
inflexibly defined by a chronological formula, the policies which the constitutional
privilege is intended to serve could easily be evaded. Moreover, although prospective acts
will doubtless ordinarily involve only speculative and insubstantial risks of
incrimination, this will scarcely always prove true. As we shall show, it is not true
here. We conclude that it is not mere time to which the law must look, but the
substantiality of the risks of incrimination.
The hazards of incrimination created by 4411 and 4412 as to future acts are not
trifling or imaginary. Prospective registrants can reasonably expect that registration and
payment of the occupational tax will significantly enhance the likelihood of their
prosecution for future acts, and that it will readily provide evidence which will
facilitate their convictions. Indeed, they can reasonably fear that registration, and
acquisition of a wagering tax stamp, may serve as decisive evidence that they have in fact
subsequently violated state gambling prohibitions. Compare Ala. Code, Tit. 14, 302
(8)-(10) (1958); Ga. Code Ann. 26-6413 (Supp. 1967). Insubstantial claims of the privilege
as to entirely prospective acts may certainly be asserted, but such claims are not here,
and they need only be considered when a litigant has the temerity to pursue them.
We conclude that nothing in the Court's opinions in Kahriger and Lewis
now suffices to preclude petitioner's assertion of the constitutional privilege as a
defense to the indictments under which he was convicted. To this extent Kahriger and Lewis
are overruled. [390 U.S. 39, 55]
IV.
We must next consider the relevance in this situation of the "required
records" doctrine, Shapiro v. United States, 335 U.S. 1. It is necessary first to
summarize briefly the circumstances in Shapiro. Petitioner, a wholesaler of fruit and
produce, was obliged by a regulation issued under the authority of the Emergency Price
Control Act to keep and "preserve for examination" various records "of the
same kind as he has customarily kept . . . ." Maximum Price Regulation 426, 14, 8
Fed. Reg. 9546, 9548-9549 (1943). He was subsequently directed by an administrative
subpoena to produce certain of these records before attorneys of the Office of Price
Administration. Petitioner complied, but asserted his constitutional privilege. In a
prosecution for violations of the Price Control Act, petitioner urged that the records had
facilitated the collection of evidence against him, and claimed immunity from prosecution
under 202 (g) of the Act, 56 Stat. 30. Petitioner was nonetheless convicted, and his
conviction was affirmed. 159 F.2d 890.
On certiorari, this Court held both that 202 (g) did not confer immunity upon
petitioner, and that he could not properly claim the protection of the privilege as to
records which he was required by administrative regulation to preserve. On the second
question, the Court relied upon the cases which have held that a custodian of public
records may not assert the privilege as to those records, and reiterated a dictum in
Wilson v. United States, 221 U.S. 361, 380, suggesting that "the privilege which
exists as to private papers cannot be maintained in relation to `records required by law
to be kept in order that there may be suitable information of transactions which are the
appropriate subjects of governmental regulation and the enforcement of restrictions
validly established.'"13 [390 U.S. 39, 56] 335
U.S., at 33. The Court considered that "it cannot be doubted" that the records
in question had "public aspects," and thus held that petitioner, as their
custodian, could not properly assert the privilege as to them. Id., at 34.
We think that neither Shapiro nor the cases upon which it relied are applicable here.14
Compare generally Note, Required Information and the Privilege against Self-Incrimination,
65 Col. L. Rev. 681; and McKay, Self-Incrimination and the New Privacy, 1967 Sup. Ct. Rev.
193, 214-217. Moreover, we find it unnecessary for present purposes to pursue in detail
the question, left unanswered in Shapiro, of what "limits . . . the Government cannot
constitutionally exceed in requiring the keeping of records . . . ." 335 U.S., at 32.
It is enough that there are significant points of difference between the situations here
and in Shapiro which in this instance preclude, under any formulation, an appropriate
application of the "required records" doctrine.
Each of the three principal elements of the doctrine, as it is described
in Shapiro, is absent from this situation. [390 U.S. 39,
57] First, petitioner Marchetti was not, by the provisions now at issue, obliged to
keep and preserve records "of the same kind as he has customarily kept"; he was
required simply to provide information, unrelated to any records which he may have
maintained, about his wagering activities. This requirement is not significantly different
from a demand that he provide oral testimony. Compare McKay, supra, at 221. Second,
whatever "public aspects" there were to the records at issue in Shapiro, there
are none to the information demanded from Marchetti. The Government's anxiety to obtain
information known to a private individual does not without more render that information
public; if it did, no room would remain for the application of the constitutional
privilege. Nor does it stamp information with a public character that the Government has
formalized its demands in the attire of a statute; if this alone were sufficient, the
constitutional privilege could be entirely abrogated by any Act of Congress. Third, the
requirements at issue in Shapiro were imposed in "an essentially non-criminal and
regulatory area of inquiry" while those here are directed to a "selective group
inherently suspect of criminal activities." Cf. Albertson v. SACB, 382 U.S. 70, 79.
The United States' principal interest is evidently the collection of revenue, and not the
punishment of gamblers, see United States v. Calamaro, 354 U.S. 351, 358; but the
characteristics of the activities about which information is sought, and the composition
of the groups to which inquiries are made, readily distinguish this situation from that in
Shapiro. There is no need to explore further the elements and limitations of Shapiro and
the cases involving public papers; these points of difference in combination preclude any
appropriate application of those cases to the present one. [390
U.S. 39, 58]
V.
Finally, we have been urged by the United States to permit continued enforcement of the
registration and occupational tax provisions, despite the demands of the constitutional
privilege, by shielding the privilege's claimants through the imposition of restrictions
upon the use by federal and state authorities of information obtained as a consequence of
compliance with the wagering tax requirements. It is suggested that these restrictions
might be similar to those imposed by the Court in Murphy v. Waterfront Commission, 378
U.S. 52.
The Constitution of course obliges this Court to give full recognition to the taxing
powers and to measures reasonably incidental to their exercise. But we are equally obliged
to give full effect to the constitutional restrictions which attend the exercise of those
powers. We do not, as we have said, doubt Congress' power to tax activities which are,
wholly or in part, unlawful. Nor can it be doubted that the privilege against
self-incrimination may not properly be asserted if other protection is granted which
"is so broad as to have the same extent in scope and effect" as the privilege
itself. Counselman v. Hitchcock, 142 U.S. 547, 585. The Government's suggestion is thus in
principle an attractive and apparently practical resolution of the difficult problem
before us. Compare Mansfield, The Albertson Case: Conflict Between the Privilege Against
Self-Incrimination and the Government's Need for Information, 1966 Sup. Ct. Rev. 103, 159;
and McKay, supra, at 232. Nonetheless, we think that it would be entirely inappropriate in
the circumstances here for the Court to impose such restrictions.
The terms of the wagering tax system make quite plain that Congress
intended information obtained as a consequence of registration and payment of the
occupational [390 U.S. 39, 59] tax to be provided
to interested prosecuting authorities. See 26 U.S.C. 6107.15 This has evidently been the
consistent practice of the Revenue Service. We must therefore assume that the imposition
of use-restrictions would directly preclude effectuation of a significant element of
Congress' purposes in adopting the wagering taxes.16 Moreover, the imposition of such
restrictions would necessarily oblige state prosecuting authorities to establish in each
case that their evidence was untainted by any connection with information obtained as a
consequence of the wagering taxes;17 the federal requirements would thus be protected only
at the cost of hampering, perhaps seriously, enforcement of state prohibitions against
gambling. We cannot know how Congress would assess the competing demands of the [390 U.S. 39, 60] federal treasury and of state gambling
prohibitions; we are, however, entirely certain that the Constitution has entrusted to
Congress, and not to this Court, the task of striking an appropriate balance among such
values.18 We therefore must decide that it would be improper for the Court to impose
restrictions of the kind urged by the United States.
VI.
We are fully cognizant of the importance for the United States' various fiscal and
regulatory functions of timely and accurate information, compare Mansfield, supra, and
Meltzer, Required Records, the McCarran Act, and the Privilege against Self-Incrimination,
18 U. Chi. L. Rev. 687; but other methods, entirely consistent with constitutional
limitations, exist by which Congress may obtain such information. See generally Counselman
v. Hitchcock, supra, at 585; compare Murphy v. Waterfront Commission, supra. Accordingly,
nothing we do today will prevent either the taxation or the regulation by Congress of
activities otherwise made unlawful by state or federal statutes.
Nonetheless, we can only conclude, under the wagering tax system as presently written,
that petitioner properly asserted the privilege against self-incrimination, and that his
assertion should have provided a complete defense to this prosecution. This defense should
have reached both [390 U.S. 39, 61] the substantive
counts for failure to register and to pay the occupational tax, and the count for
conspiracy to evade payment of the tax. We emphasize that we do not hold that these
wagering tax provisions are as such constitutionally impermissible; we hold only that
those who properly assert the constitutional privilege as to these provisions may not be
criminally punished for failure to comply with their requirements. If, in different
circumstances, a taxpayer is not confronted by substantial hazards of self-incrimination,
or if he is otherwise outside the privilege's protection, nothing we decide today would
shield him from the various penalties prescribed by the wagering tax statutes.
The judgment of the Court of Appeals is
MR. JUSTICE MARSHALL took no part in the consideration or decision of this case.
[For concurring opinion of MR. JUSTICE BRENNAN, see post, p. 72.]
[For concurring opinion of MR. JUSTICE STEWART, see post, p. 76.]
[For dissenting opinion of MR. CHIEF JUSTICE WARREN, see post, p. 77.]
Footnotes
[Footnote 1] Certiorari was originally granted in Costello v. United States, 383 U.S.
942, to consider these issues. Upon Costello's death, certiorari was granted in the
present case. 385 U.S. 1000. Marchetti and Costello, with others, were convicted at the
same trial of identical offenses, arising from the same series of transactions. Certiorari
both here and in Costello was limited to the following questions: "Do not the federal
wagering tax statutes here involved violate the petitioner's privilege against
self-incrimination guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment? Should not this Court, especially in
view of its recent decision in Albertson v. Subversive Activities Control Board, 382 U.S.
70 (1965), overrule United States v. Kahriger, 345 U.S. 22 (1953), and Lewis v. United
States, 348 U.S. 419 (1955)?" After argument, the case was restored to the calendar,
and set for reargument at the 1967 Term. 388 U.S. 903. Counsel were asked to argue, in
addition to the original questions, the following: "(1) What relevance, if any, has
the required records doctrine, Shapiro v. United States, 335 U.S. 1, to the validity under
the Fifth Amendment of the registration and special occupational tax requirements of 26
U.S.C. 4411, 4412? (2) Can an obligation to pay the special occupational tax required by
26 U.S.C. 4411 be satisfied without filing the registration statement provided for by 26
U.S.C. 4412?"
[Footnote 2] A July 1963 revision of Form 11-C modified the form of certain of its
questions. The record does not indicate which version of the return was available to
petitioner at the time of the omissions for which he was convicted. The minor verbal
variations between the two do not affect the result which we reach today.
[Footnote 3] The Treasury Regulations provide that a stamp, evidencing payment of the
occupational tax, may not be issued unless the taxpayer both submits Form 11-C and tenders
the full amount of the tax. 26 CFR 44.4901-1 (c). Accordingly, the Revenue Service has
refused to accept the $50 tax unless it is accompanied by the completed registration form;
and it has consistently been upheld in that practice. See United States v. Whiting, 311
F.2d 191; United States v. Mungiole, 233 F.2d 204; Combs v. Snyder, 101 F. Supp. 531,
aff'd, 342 U.S. 939. The United States has in this case acknowledged that the registration
and occupational tax provisions are not realistically severable. Brief on Reargument
37-41.
[Footnote 4] In his trial testimony in Grosso v. United States, decided herewith, post,
p. 62, W. Dean Struble, technical advisor to the District Director of Internal Revenue,
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, described Form 11-C as follows: "A Form 11-C serves two
purposes. The first is an application for registry for a wagering tax stamp. After the
application is properly filed and the tax paid, at that time the Form 11-C becomes a
special tax return." Transcript of Record 90.
[Footnote 5] The following illustrate the state gambling and wagering statutes under
which one engaged in activities taxable under the federal provisions at issue here might
incur criminal penalties. Ala. Code, [390 U.S. 39, 45]
Tit. 14, c. 46 (1958); Alaska Laws, Tit. 65, c. 13 (1949); Ariz. Rev. Stat. Ann. 13-438
(1956); Ark. Stat. Ann., Tit. 41, c. 20 (1947); Cal. Pen. Code 330-337a (1956); Colo. Rev.
Stat. Ann., c. 40, Art. 10 (1963); Del. Code Ann., Tit. 11, 665-669 (1953); D.C. Code Ann.
22-1504 to 22-1511 (1967); Fla. Stat., c. 849 (1965); Ga. Code Ann., c. 26-64 (1953);
Hawaii Rev. Laws, c. 288 (1955); Idaho Code Ann., Tit. 18, c. 38 (1948); Ill. Rev. Stat.,
c. 38, Art. 28 (1965); Ind. Ann. Stat., Tit. 10, c. 23 (1956); Iowa Code, c. 726 (1966);
Kan. Stat. Ann., c. 21, Art. 15 (1964); Ky. Rev. Stat. 436.200 (1962); La. Rev. Stat.
14:90 (1950); Me. Rev. Stat. Ann., Tit. 17, c. 61 (1964); Md. Ann. Code, Art. 27, 237-242
(1957); Mass. Gen. Laws Ann., c. 271 (1959); Mich. Stat. Ann. 28.533 (1954); Minn. Stat.
609.755 (1965); Miss. Code Ann. 2190-2202 (1942); Mo. Rev. Stat. 563.350 (1959); Mont.
Rev. Codes Ann., Tit. 94, c. 24 (1947); Neb. Rev. Stat. 28-941 (1943); Nev. Rev. Stat.
293.603, 465.010 (1957); N. H. Rev. Stat. Ann., c. 577 (1955); N. J. Rev. Stat., Tit. 2A,
c. 112 (1953); N. M. Stat. Ann., c. 40A, Art. 19 (1953); N. Y. Pen. Law, Art. 225 (1967);
N.C. Gen. Stat. 14-292 to 14-295 (1953); N. D. Cent. Code Ann., c. 12-23 (1959); Ohio Rev.
Code Ann., c. 2915 (1953); Okla. Stat. Ann., Tit. 21, c. 38 (1958); Ore. Rev. Stat.
167.505 (1965); Pa. Stat. Ann., Tit. 18, 4603-4607 (1963); R. I. Gen. Laws Ann., Tit. 11,
c. 19 (1956); S. C. Code Ann., Tit. 16, c. 8, Art. 1 (1962); S. D. Code, Tit. 24, c. 24.01
(1939); Tenn. Code Ann., Tit. 39, c. 20 (1955); Tex. Pen. Code Ann., c. 6 (1952); Utah
Code Ann., Tit. 76, c. 27 (1953); Vt. Stat. Ann., Tit. 13, c. 43, subch. 2 (1959); Va.
Code Ann., Tit. 18.1, c. 7, Art. 2 (1950); Wash. Rev. Code, Tit. 9, c. 9.47 (1956); W. Va.
Code Ann., c. 61, Art. 10 (1961); Wis. Stat., c. 945 (1965); Wyo. Stat. Ann., Tit. 6, c.
9, Art. 2 (1957). These statutes of course vary in their terms and scope, but these
variations scarcely detract from the breadth or prevalence of the penalties which in
combination they create.
[Footnote 6] New Hampshire conducts a state sweepstakes, but imposes broad criminal
penalties upon privately operated lotteries. N. H. Rev. Stat. Ann., c. 577 (1955). The
following illustrate the other state statutes which impose criminal penalties upon lottery
activities which would be taxable under these federal statutes. Ala. Code, [390 U.S. 39, 46] Tit. 14, c. 46 (1958); Alaska Laws 65-13-1
(1949); Ariz. Rev. Stat. Ann. 13-436 (1956); Ark. Stat. Ann. 41-2024 (1947); Cal. Pen.
Code 319-326 (1956); Colo. Rev. Stat. Ann., c. 40, Art. 16 (1963); Del. Code Ann., Tit.
11, 661-664 (1953); D.C. Code Ann. 22-1501 (1967); Fla. Stat. 849.09 (1965); Ga. Code
Ann., c. 26-65 (1953); Hawaii Rev. Laws, c. 288 (1955); Idaho Code Ann., Tit. 18, c. 49
(1948); Ill. Rev. Stat., c. 38, Art. 28 (1965); Ind. Ann. Stat., Tit. 10, c. 23 (1956);
Iowa Code 726.8 (1966); Kan. Stat. Ann., c. 21, Art. 15 (1964); Ky. Rev. Stat. 436.360
(1962); La. Rev. Stat. 14:90 (1950); Me. Rev. Stat. Ann., Tit. 17, c. 81 (1964); Md. Ann.
Code, Art. 27, 356 (1957); Mass. Gen. Laws Ann., c. 271 (1959); Mich. Stat. Ann.,
28.604-28.608 (1954); Miss. Code Ann. 2270-2279 (1942); Mo. Rev. Stat. 563.430 (1959);
Mont. Rev. Codes Ann., Tit. 94, c. 30 (1947); Neb. Rev. Stat. 28-961 (1943); N. J. Rev.
Stat., Tit. 2A, c. 121 (1953); N. M. Stat. Ann., c. 40A, Art. 19 (1953); N. Y. Pen. Law,
Art. 225 (1967); N.C. Gen. Stat. 14-289 to 14-291 (1953); N. D. Cent. Code Ann., c. 12-24
(1959); Ohio Rev. Code Ann., c. 2915 (1953); Okla. Stat. Ann., Tit. 21, c. 41 (1958); Ore.
Rev. Stat. 167.405 (1965); Pa. Stat. Ann., Tit. 18, 4601-4602 (1963); R. I. Gen. Laws
Ann., Tit. 11, c. 19 (1956); S. C. Code Ann., Tit. 16, c. 8, Art. 1 (1962); S. D. Code,
Tit. 24, c. 24.01 (1939); Tenn. Code Ann. 39-2017 (1955); Tex. Pen. Code Ann., Art. 654
(1952); Utah Code Ann., Tit. 76, c. 27 (1953); Vt. Stat. Ann., Tit. 13, c. 43, subch. 1
(1959); Va. Code Ann., Tit. 18.1, c. 7, Art. 2 (1950); Wash. Rev. Code, Tit. 9, c. 9.59
(1956); W. Va. Code Ann., c. 61, Art. 10 (1961); Wis. Stat., c. 945 (1965); Wyo. Stat.
Ann., Tit. 6, c. 9, Art. 2 (1957).
[Footnote 7] See, e. g., Irvine v. California, 347 U.S. 128; United States v. Zizzo,
338 F.2d 577; Commonwealth v. Fiorini, 202 Pa. Super. 88, 195 A. 2d 119; State v. Curry,
92 Ohio App. 1, 109 N. E. 2d 298; State v. Reinhardt, 229 La. 673, 86 So.2d 530; Griggs v.
State, 37 Ala. App. 605, 73 So.2d 382; McClary v. State, 211 Tenn. 46, 362 S. W. 2d 450.
See also State v. Baum, 230 La. 247, 88 So.2d 209.
[Footnote 8] One State has gone a step further to facilitate the enforcement of its
gambling prohibitions through the federal wagering tax. Illinois requires each holder of a
wagering tax stamp to register with the clerk of the county in which he resides or
conducts any business, and imposes fines and imprisonment upon those who do not. Ill. Rev.
Stat., c. 38, 28-4 (1965).
[Footnote 9] The metaphor is to be found in the opinions both of Lord Eldon in Paxton
v. Douglas, 19 Ves. Jr. 225, 227, and of Chief Justice Marshall in United States v. Burr,
In re Willie, 25 Fed. Cas. 38, 40 (No. 14,692 e).
[Footnote 10] We must note that some States and municipalities have undertaken to
punish compliance with the federal wagering tax statutes in an even more direct fashion.
Alabama has created a statutory presumption that possessors of federal wagering tax stamps
are in violation of state law. Ala. Code, Tit. 14, 302 (8)-(10) (1958). Florida adopted a
similar statute, Fla. Laws 1953, c. 28057, but [390 U.S.
39, 49] it was subsequently declared unconstitutional by the Florida Supreme Court.
Jefferson v. Sweat, 76 So.2d 494. The Supreme Court of Tennessee has upheld an ordinance
adopted by the City of Chattanooga which makes possession of a federal tax stamp a
misdemeanor. Deitch v. City of Chattanooga, 195 Tenn. 245, 258 S. W. 2d 776. See for a
similar provision Rev. Ord., Kansas City, Missouri, 23.110 (1956); and Kansas City v. Lee,
414 S. W. 2d 251. Georgia has recently provided by statute that the possession or purchase
of a federal wagering tax stamp is "prima facie evidence of guilt" of
professional gambling. Ga. Code Ann. 26-6413 (Supp. 1967). See for a similar rule McClary
v. State, supra, n. 7.
[Footnote 11] Hoffman v. United States, 341 U.S. 479, 487.
[Footnote 12] We presume that the Court referred to the following: "[T]here is no
compulsory self-crimination in a rule of law which merely requires beforehand a future
report on a class of future acts among which a particular one may or may not in future be
criminal at the choice of the party reporting." 8 Wigmore, supra, at 349. But see
Morgan, supra, at 37; and McKay, Self-Incrimination and the New Privacy, 1967 Sup. Ct.
Rev. 193, 221.
[Footnote 13] The Court in fact quoted from the reiteration of the Wilson dictum
included in Davis v. United States, 328 U.S. 582, 590.
[Footnote 14] The United States has urged that this case is not reached by Shapiro
simply because petitioner was required to submit reports, and not to maintain records.
Insofar as this is intended to suggest the the crucial issue respecting the applicability
of Shapiro is the method by which information reaches the Government, we are unable to
accept the distinction. We perceive no meaningful difference between an obligation to
maintain records for inspection, and such an obligation supplemented by a requirement that
those records be filed periodically with officers of the United States. We believe, as the
United States itself argued in Shapiro, that "[r]egulations permit records to be
retained, rather than filed, largely for the convenience of the persons regulated."
Brief for the United States in No. 49, October Term 1947, at 21, n. 7.
[Footnote 15] Section 6107 reads as follows: "In the principal internal revenue
office in each internal revenue district there shall be kept, for public inspection, an
alphabetical list of the names of all persons who have paid special taxes under subtitle D
or E within such district. Such list shall be prepared and kept pursuant to regulations
prescribed by the Secretary or his delegate, and shall contain the time, place, and
business for which such special taxes have been paid, and upon application of any
prosecuting officer of any State, county, or municipality there shall be furnished to him
a certified copy thereof, as of a public record, for which a fee of $1 for each 100 words
or fraction thereof in the copy or copies so requested may be charged." The special
taxes to which the section refers include the occupational tax imposed by 26 U.S.C. 4411.
[Footnote 16] The requirement now embodied in 6107 was adopted prior to the special
occupational tax on wagering, but Congress plainly indicated when it adopted the latter
that it understood, and wished, that state prosecuting authorities would be provided lists
of those who had paid the wagering tax. See H. R. Rep. No. 586, 82d Cong., 1st Sess., 60;
S. Rep. No. 781, 82d Cong., 1st Sess., 118.
[Footnote 17] The Court required such a showing as part of the restrictions imposed in
Murphy, 378 U.S., at 79, n. 18. The United States has acknowledged that this would be no
less imperative here. Brief for the United States 24-25.
[Footnote 18] It should be emphasized that it would not suffice here simply to sever
6107. See 26 U.S.C. 7852 (a). Cf. Warren v. Mayor of Charlestown, 2 Gray 84, 99; Carter v.
Carter Coal Co., 298 U.S. 238, 316. We would be required not merely to strike out words,
but to insert words that are not now in the statute. Here, as in the analogous
circumstances of United States v. Reese, 92 U.S. 214, "This would, to some extent,
substitute the judicial for the legislative department of the government. . . . To limit
this statute in the manner now asked for would be to make a new law, not to enforce an old
one. This is no part of our duty." Id., at 221. [390
U.S. 39, 62]
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