Barenblatt v. United States/Dissent Brennan

by William J. Brennan, Jr.

United States Supreme Court

360 U.S. 109

Barenblatt  v.  United States

 Argued: Nov. 18, 1958. --- Decided: June 8, 1959

Mr. Justice BRENNAN, dissenting.

I would reverse this conviction. It is sufficient that I state my complete agreement with my Brother Black that no purpose for the investigation of Barenblatt is revealed by the record except exposure purely for the sake of exposure. This is not a purpose to which Barenblatt's rights under the First Amendment can validly be subordinated. An investigation in which the processes of law-making and law-evaluating are submerged entirely in exposure of individual behavior-in adjudication, of a sort, through the exposure process-is outside the constitutional pale of congressional inquiry. Watkins v. United States, 354 U.S. 178, 187, 200, 77 S.Ct. 1173, 1179, 1185, 1 L.Ed.2d 1273; see also Sweezy v. State of New Hampshire, 354 U.S. 234, 77 S.Ct. 1203, 1 L.Ed.2d 1311; NAACP v. State of Alabama, 357 U.S. 449, 78 S.Ct. 1163, 2 L.Ed.2d 1488; Uphaus v. Wyman, 360 U.S. 72, 82, 79 S.Ct. 1040, 1046 (dissenting opinion).

Notes