Carroll v. United States (354 U.S. 394)/Opinion of the Court

Petitioners were arrested in February 1954 on John Doe warrants and subsequently were indicted in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, with two others, for violations of the local lottery laws and for conspiracy to carry on a lottery. After indictment each filed a pre-trial motion under Rule 41(e) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, asking for the suppression of evidence seized from his person at the time of his arrest. The District Court granted petitioners' motions to suppress, on the ground that probable cause had been lacking for the issuance of the arrest warrants directed against them. United States v. Hall, D.C., 126 F.Supp. 620. The Government appealed the order for suppression to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The indictment against petitioners had not been dismissed, but the Government informed the Court of Appeals that, without the 'numbers' paraphernalia seized and suppressed, it would lack sufficient evidence to proceed on any of the counts involving petitioners and therefore would have to dismiss the indictment. Petitioners challenged the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeals to hear an appeal by the Government from an order of the District Court granting a motion to suppress that was made while an indictment was pending in the same District Court. The Court of Appeals sustained its jurisdiction on the authority of its prior decision in United States v. Cefaratti, and reversed the district judge on the merits, holding that there had been probable cause to justify the issuance of warrants for the arrest of petitioners. 98 U.S.App.D.C. 244, 234 F.2d 679. We granted certiorari, limited to the question of appealability of the suppression order, because of the importance of that question to the administration of the federal criminal laws. 352 U.S. 906, 77 S.Ct. 151, 1 L.Ed.2d 117.

The Government contends, most broadly, that the suppression order of any District Court is 'final' and sufficiently separable and collateral to the criminal case to be appealable under the general authority of 28 U.S.C. § 1291, 28 U.S.C.A. § 1291, notwithstanding that such an order is not listed among the few types of orders in criminal cases from which the Government may appeal pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3731, 18 U.S.C.A. § 3731. More narrowly, failing acceptance of the position just stated, the Government maintains that an order of suppression is, within the criminal case, a 'final' order and thus appealable under the statutory provisions for appeals by the Government in criminal cases that are applicable exclusively in the District of Columbia. It will be convenient to discuss the issues in the same order.

It is axiomatic, as a matter of history as well as doctrine, that the existence of appellate jurisdiction in a specific federal court over a given type of case is dependent upon authority expressly conferred by statute. And since the jurisdictional statutes prevailing at any given time are so much a product of the whole history of both growth and limitation of federal-court jurisdiction since the First Judiciary Act, 1 Stat. 73, they have always been interpreted in the light of that history and of the axiom that clear statutory mandate must exist to found jurisdiction. It suffices to cite as authority for these principles some of the cases in which they have been applied to the general problem now before us, the availability of appellate review sought by the Government in criminal cases. E.g., United States v. More, 3 Cranch 159, 2 L.Ed. 397; United States v. Sanges, 144 U.S. 310, 12 S.Ct. 609, 36 L.Ed. 445; In re Heath, 144 U.S. 92, 12 S.Ct. 615, 36 L.Ed. 358; Cross v. United States, 145 U.S. 571, 12 S.Ct. 842, 36 L.Ed. 821; United States v. Burroughs, 289 U.S. 159, 53 S.Ct. 574, 77 L.Ed. 1096.

There is a further principle, also supported by the history of federal appellate jurisdiction, that importantly pertains to the present problem. That is the concept that in the federal jurisprudence, at least, appeals by the Government in criminal cases are something unusual, exceptional, not favored. The history shows resistance of the Court to the opening of an appellate route for the Government until it was plainly provided by the Congress, and after that a close restriction of its uses to those authorized by the statute. Indeed, it was 100 years before the defendant in a criminal case, even a capital case, was afforded appellate review as of right. And after review on behalf of convicted defendants was made certain by the Acts of 1889 and 1891, the Court continued to withhold an equivalent remedy from the Government, despite the existence of colorable statutory authority for permitting the Government to appeal in those important cases where a preosecution was dismissed upon the trial court's opinion of the proper construction or the constitutional validity of a federal statute. When the Congress responded to the problem of such cases, in the Criminal Appeals Act of 1907, now 18 U.S.C. § 3731, 18 U.S.C.A. § 3731, it did so with careful expression of the limited types of orders in criminal cases as to which the Government might thenceforth have review. It was as late as 1942 before the Criminal Appeals Act was amended to permit appeals by the Government from decisions, granting dismissal or arrest of judgment, other than those grounded by the trial court upon the construction or invalidity of a statute.

It is true that certain orders relating to a criminal case may be found to possess sufficient independence from the main course of the prosecution to warrant treatment as plenary orders, and thus be appealable on the authority of 28 U.S.C. § 1291, 28 U.S.C.A. § 1291, without regard to the limitations of 18 U.S.C. § 3731, 18 U.S.C.A. § 3731, just as in civil litigation orders of equivalent distinctness are appealable on the same authority without regard to the limitations of 28 U.S.C. § 1292, 28 U.S.C.A. § 1292. The instances in criminal cases are very few. The only decision of this Court applying to a criminal case the reasoning of Cohen v. Beneficial Loan Corp., 337 U.S. 541, 69 S.Ct. 1221, 93 L.Ed. 1528, held that an order relating to the amount of bail to be exacted falls into this category. Stack v. Boyle, 342 U.S. 1, 72 S.Ct. 1, 96 L.Ed. 3. Earlier cases illustrated, sometimes without discussion, that under certain conditions orders for the suppression or return of illegally seized property are appealable at once, as where the motion is made prior to indictment, or in a different district from that in which the trial will occur, or after dismissal of the case, or perhaps where the emphasis is on the return of property rather than its suppression as evidence. In such cases, as appropriate, the Government as well as the moving person has been permitted to appeal from an adverse decision. Burdeau v. McDowell, 256 U.S. 465, 41 S.Ct. 574, 65 L.Ed. 1048.

But a motion made by a defendant after indictment and in the district of trial has none of the aspects of independent just noted, as the Court held in Cogen v. United States, 278 U.S. 221, 49 S.Ct. 118, 73 L.Ed. 275. As the opinion by Mr. Justice Brandeis explains, the denial of a pre-trial motion in this posture is interlocutory in form and real effect, and thus not appealable at the instance of the defendant. We think the granting of such a motion also has an interlocutory character, and therefore cannot be the subject of an appeal by the Government. In the present case the Government argues, as it offered to stipulate below, that the effect of suppressing the evidence seized from petitioners at their arrests will be to force dismissal of the indictment for lack of evidence on which to go forward. But that is not a necessary result of a suppression order relating to particular items of evidence, nor have we been shown whether it will be the result in practice in the generality of cases. Appeal rights cannot depend on the facts of a particular case. The Congress necessarily has had to draw the jurisdictional statutes in terms of categories. To fit an order granting suppression before trial in a criminal case into the category of 'final decisions' requires a straining that is not permissible in the light of the principles and the history concerning criminal appeals, especially Government appeals, that are outlined above and more fully set forth in the cases cited. Other Courts of Appeals that have considered the problem have concluded that this order is not 'final' or appealable at the behest of the Government.

The Government exhorts us not to exalt form over substance, in contending that the present order has virtually the same attributes as the suppression orders found reviewable in earlier cases. We do not agree that the order entered in a pending criminal case has the same characteristics of independence and completeness as a suppression order entered under other circumstances. Moreover, in a limited sense, form is substance with respect to ascertaining the existence of appellate jurisdiction. While it is always necessary to categorize a situation realistically, to place a given order according to its real effect, it remains true that the categories themselves were defined by the Congress in terms of form. Many interlocutory decisions of a trial court may be of grave importance to a litigant, yet are not amenable to appeal at the time entered, and some are never satisfactorily reviewable. In particular is this true of the Government in a criminal case, for there is no authority today for interlocutory appeals, and even if the Government had a general right to review upon an adverse conclusion of a case after trial, much of what it might complain of would have been allowed up in the sanctity of the jury's verdict.

If there is serious need for appeals by the Government from suppression orders, or unfairness to the interests of effective criminal law enforcement in the distinctions we have referred to, it is the function of the Congress to decide whether to initiate a departure from the historical pattern of restricted appellate jurisdiction in criminal cases. We must decide the case on the statutes that exist today, in the light of what has been the development of the jurisdiction. It is only through legislative resolution, furthermore, that peripheral questions regarding the conduct of Government appeals in this situation can be regulated. Some of the problems directed at legislative judgment involve such particulars as confinement or bail of the defendant, acceleration of the Government's appeal, and discretionary limitation of the right to take the appeal.

The Court of Appeals sustained its jurisdiction on the basis of statutory provisions peculiar to the District of Columbia. Here again, the jurisdictional statutes are a product of historical development, and must be interpreted in that light. During the century from 1801 to 1901 the Congress several times organized and reorganized the courts of the District of Columbia, independently of the federal courts in the States. It is not necessary here to relate the chronology of shuffled jurisdictions and nomenclature. It is sufficient to note that from 1838 on, review of a final judgment of conviction in the criminal trial court was available in the appellate tribunal of the District. However, the appellate judgment was not further reviewable in this Court in any manner during this period. In re Heath, 144 U.S. 92, 12 S.Ct. 615, 36 L.Ed. 358; Cross v. United States, 145 U.S. 571, 12 S.Ct. 842, 36 L.Ed. 821. When the Acts of 1889 and 1891 opened up appellate review of criminal convictions in the federal courts throughout the country, at first directly to this Court, it was held that those statutes did not apply to cases originating in the District of Columbia. Ibid.

In 1901 the Congress codified the laws of the District of Columbia, including those relating to the judicial system. District of Columbia Code, 31 Stat. 1189. Criminal jurisdiction was vested in the trial court of general jurisdiction, then known as the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia. A single section of the statute, § 226, conferred appellate jurisdiction on the Court of Appeals over decisions of the Supreme Court in general terms, apparently including criminal decisions. A party aggrieved could take an appeal from a final order or judgment, and was entitled to allowance of an appeal from an interlocutory order affecting possession of property. In addition, the Court of Appeals could allow an appeal, in its discretion, from any other interlocutory order when it was shown 'that it will be in the interest of justice to allow such appeal.'

Section 935 of the Code of 1901 established this new provision:

'In all criminal prosecutions the United States or the     District of Columbia, as the case may be, shall have the same      right to appeal that is given to the defendant, including the      right to a bill of exceptions: Provided, That if on such      appeal it shall be found that there was error in the rulings      of the court during the trial, a verdict in favor of the      defendant shall not be set aside.' 31 Stat. 1341.

The legislative history of the Code does not indicate why the Government was now given a right of appeal, but we may surmise that the draftsmen of the Code desired to adopt a procedural technique that was then in force in a large number of States. The 'same right of appeal that is given to the defendant' would be defined by reference to § 226, of course, in cases coming up from the Supreme Court. After the Congress conferred on the United States a more limited right of appeal from the District Courts in the Criminal Appeals Act of 1907, running directly to this Court, it was held that the 1907 Act was not applicable to cases decided in the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia. There § 935 provided 'the complete appellate system.' United States v. Burroughs, 289 U.S. 159, 164, 53 S.Ct. 574, 576, 77 L.Ed. 1096. When the Criminal Appeals Act was broadened in 1942, it was then first made applicable to the District of Columbia. But the text of § 935 was not repealed at that time, nor was it repealed in connection with the 1948 revisions of the Judicial Code and the Criminal Code. It may be concluded, then, that even today criminal appeals by the Government in the District of Columbia are not limited to the categories set forth in 18 U.S.C. § 3731, 18 U.S.C.A. § 3731, although as to cases of the type covered by that special jurisdictional statute, its explicit directions will prevail over the general terms of § 935, now found in the District of Columbia Code, 1951 Edition, as § 23-105. United States v. Hoffman, 82 U.S.App.D.C. 153, 161 F.2d 881, decided on merits, 335 U.S. 77, 68 S.Ct. 1413, 92 L.Ed. 1830.

Meanwhile, under the general provisions of § 226 of the 1901 Code, the practice had developed of allowing appeals from interlocutory orders in criminal cases. A particular instance disturbed the Congress in 1926, and it immediately passed a statute to eliminate the practice. It is apparent from the legislative history that it was interlocutory appeals for the defendant that were considered anomalous in a federal court and undesirable from the viewpoint of prompt dispatch of criminal prosecutions, but the new provision in terms applied equally to the possibility of an interlocutory appeal being allowed to the Government through the combined provisions of § 226 and § 935. The 1926 enactment, as it now reads in the District of Columbia Code, 1951 Edition, § 17-102, states:

'Nothing contained in any Act of Congress shall be construed     to empower the United States Court of Appeals for the      District of Columbia to allow an appeal from any      interlocutory order entered in any criminal action or      proceeding or to entertain any such appeal heretofore or      hereafter allowed or taken.' 44 Stat. 831, as amended. 48     Stat. 926.

The allowance of appeal technique no longer exists as to cases coming from the District Court (the former Supreme Court), but if this section does not continue to have life by force of the words 'or hereafter * *  * taken,' it does not matter, for § 226 itself was replaced in 1949 by the nationwide appellate jurisdiction provisions of Title 28 of the U.S.Code, § 1291 and § 1292, 28 U.S.C.A. §§ 1291, 1292, which do not authorize interlocutory appeals in criminal cases.

Thus the statutory context in which the court below made its ruling is seen to be this: Subject to stated limitations, the Government has the 'same right of appeal' as the defendant in criminal cases in the District Court for the District of Columbia, but no party can appeal an interlocutory order in such cases. In United States v. Cefaratti, 91 U.S.App.D.C. 297, 202 F.2d 13, the Court of Appeals reconciled these rules by holding:

'Since defendants may appeal from 'final decisions,' to say     that 'the United States *  *  * shall have the same right of      appeal that is given to the defendant *  *  * ' means that *  *  *      the United States may appeal from final decisions. It does     not mean that the United States cannot appeal from a final      decision unless it so happens that an opposite decision would      also have been final.' 91 U.S.App.D.C. at page 302, 202 F.2d      at page 17.

Applying this reasoning to orders for the suppression of evidence, the Court of Appeals concluded that such an order had the requisite finality and independence of the criminal case to be appealable under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, 28 U.S.C.A. § 1291. In the present case, the court below reaffirmed its Cefaratti analysis. Insofar as these decisions, resting on opinions of this Court, imply a reviewability for suppression orders that would be general to cases from all Federal District Courts, we have already indicated our disagreement earlier in this opinion.

But the Government contends that appealability under the District of Columbia statutes, though it requires a 'final decision,' does not call for the independent or separable character of the orders in the cases relied on by the Court of Appeals, because here it is not essential to characterize an order as plenary or disassociated from the criminal case, inasmuch as the Government has a comprehensive right of appeal within a criminal case in the District of Columbia. We do not agree that the standard of 'final decisions' as prerequisite to appeal is something less or different under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, 28 U.S.C.A. § 1291, as the successor to § 226 of the District of Columbia Code of 1901 than it is under § 1291 as the successor to the nationally applicable appeal provisions of the Judicial Code. Cf. Stack v. Boyle, 342 U.S. 1, 6, 12, 72 S.Ct. 1, 4, 7. By this we do not mean to say that § 935 of the 1901 Code is no broader than 18 U.S.C. § 3731, 18 U.S.C.A. § 3731, but merely that the underlying concepts of finality are the same in each case.

As the outline of the statutory development demonstrates, both this Court and the Congress have been strict in confining rights of appeal in criminal cases in the District of Columbia to those plainly authorized by statute. We do not believe that the combined provisions of the 1901 and 1926 enactments permit the Government to appeal in any situation where the decision against it may have some characteristics of finality, yet does not either terminate the prosecution or pertain to an independent peripheral matter such as would be appealable in other federal courts on the authority of Stack v. Boyle, supra. The 1901 Code gave the Government 'the same right of appeal that is given to the defendant,' while the 1926 amendment to the Code restricted the defendant's right of appeal to those decisions of the Supreme Court (now District Court) that have a 'final' effect, as that term is understood in defining appellate jurisdiction. We conclude that full force cannot be given to the limitations imposed on criminal appeals in the District of Columbia unless the Government is restricted as is the defendant. This is not to say 'that the United States cannot appeal from a final decision unless it so happens that an opposite decision would also have been final,' as the Court of Appeals suggested in Cefaratti. Quite to the contrary, our holding is that the statutory provisions applicable to the District of Columbia, subject to the further limitations stated therein, afford the Government an appeal only from an order against it which terminates a prosecution or makes a decision whose distinct or plenary character meets the standards of the precedents applicable to finality problems in all federal courts.

In thus defining the Government's appeal rights under § 935 of the 1901 Code, we are mindful of the considerations that motivated the Congress to specify in 1926 that interlocutory appeals in criminal cases were not possible:

'Promptness in the dispatch of the criminal business of the     courts is by all recognized as in the highest degree      desirable. Greater expedition is demanded by a wholesome     public opinion.' S.Rep. No. 926, 69th Cong., 1st Sess.

And cf. H.R.Rep. No. 1363, 69th Cong., 1st Sess. Delays in the prosecution of criminal cases are numerous and lengthy enough without sanctioning appeals that are not plainly authorized by statute. We cannot do so here without a much clearer mandate than exists in the present terms and the historical development of the relevant provisions. Cf. United States v. Burroughs, 289 U.S. 159, 53 S.Ct. 574, 77 L.Ed. 1096; United States v. Sanges, 144 U.S. 310, 12 S.Ct. 609, 36 L.Ed. 445.

The judgment of the Court of Appeals is reversed, and the case is remanded to the District Court for proceedings consistent with this opinion.

Reversed.