Watkins v. United States
| Watkins v. United States | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Argued March 7, 1957 Decided June 17, 1957 |
|
| Full case name | John Watkins v. United States |
| Citations | 354 U.S. 178 (more)
77 S. Ct. 1173; 1 L. Ed. 2d 1273; 1957 U.S. LEXIS 1558; 76 Ohio L. Abs. 225
|
| Prior history | Cert. to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit |
| Holding | |
| Watkins was unable to determine his obligation to respond to questions posed to him and so was denied due process. | |
| Court membership | |
| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Warren, joined by Black, Frankfurter, Douglas, Harlan, Brennan |
| Concurrence | Frankfurter |
| Dissent | Clark |
| Burton and Whittaker took no part in the consideration or decision of the case. | |
Watkins v. United States, 354 U.S. 178 (1957), is a decision of the Supreme Court of the United States that held that the power of the United States Congress is not unlimited in conducting investigations and that nothing in the US Constitution gives it the authority to expose individuals' private affairs.
John Thomas Watkins, a labor union official from Rock Island, Illinois, was convicted of contempt of Congress, a misdemeanor under 2 U.S.C. § 192, for failing to answer questions posed by members of Congress during a hearing held by a subcommittee of the House of Representatives Committee on Un-American Activities on April 29, 1954.
Watkins was born in July 1910 and ended his formal education in the eighth grade. At the time of his testimony he had four children and was working on behalf of the United Auto Workers (UAW) to unionize workers at a division of Firestone Tire and Rubber in Illinois. The UAW underwrote his legal expenses.
Watkins was asked to name people he knew to be members of the Communist Party. Watkins told the subcommittee that he did not wish to answer such questions and that they were outside the scope of the subjects on which he was summoned to testify and of the committee's jurisdiction. He said:
I am not going to plead the fifth amendment, but I refuse to answer certain questions that I believe are outside the proper scope of your committee's activities. I will answer any questions which this committee puts to me about myself. I will also answer questions about those persons whom I knew to be members of the Communist Party and whom I believe still are. I will not, however, answer any questions with respect to others with whom I associated in the past. I do not believe that any law in this country requires me to testify about persons who may in the past have been Communist Party members or otherwise engaged in Communist Party activity but who to my best knowledge and belief have long since removed themselves from the Communist movement.
...
Wikipedia