Bronston v. United States
| Bronston v. United States | |
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| Argued November 15, 1972 Decided January 10, 1973 |
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| Full case name | Samuel Bronston v. United States |
| Citations | 409 U.S. 352 (more) |
| Prior history | Defendant convicted, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York; conviction affirmed by United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, 453 F.2d 555 |
| Holding | |
| Answers given to questions under oath that are literally truthful but unresponsive or technically misleading do not constitute perjury; proper remedy is clarifying questions by examiner | |
| Court membership | |
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| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Burger |
| Laws applied | |
| 18 U.S.C. § 1621 | |
Bronston v. United States, 409 U.S. 352 (1973), is a seminalUnited States Supreme Court decision strictly construing the federal perjury statute. Chief Justice Warren Burger wrote for a unanimous Court that responses to questions made under oath that relayed truthful information in and of themselves but were intended to mislead or evade the examiner could not be prosecuted. Instead, the criminal-justice system had to rely on more carefully worded follow-up questions.
The decision has been cited in many cases since then and has become the controlling legal standard of perjury in federal jurisprudence. It was invoked during Bill Clinton's impeachment proceedings in 1998 as a defense to charges of perjury against him.
It has long been criticized for the loophole it creates in the perjury statutes as essentially allowing a witness to lie without consequences. Nevertheless, later Courts have refused to overrule or otherwise limit it despite some moves in that direction by lower courts.
Samuel Bronston was a New York-based movie producer who, between 1959 and 1964, made films in various European countries as Samuel Bronston Productions, Inc., a company he wholly owned. He was a pioneer in using countries such as Spain to take advantage of lower production costs. As part of its business operations, the company maintained bank accounts in the countries in which it did business — 37 separate accounts in five different countries, it would be established later.
In 1964, after the epic The Fall of the Roman Empire failed, the company filed for federal bankruptcy protection. Two years later, its owner was being questioned under oath at a creditors' committee meeting about the company's overseas assets. It included the following exchange between Bronston and one of the lawyers for his creditors:
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