Garrity v. New Jersey/Opinion of the Court

Mr. Justice DOUGLAS delivered the opinion of the Court.

Appellants were police officers in certain New Jersey boroughs. The Supreme Court of New Jersey ordered that alleged irregularities in handling cases in the municipal courts of those boroughs be investigated by the Attorney General, invested him with broad powers of inquiry and investigation, and directed him to make a report to the court. The matters investigated concerned alleged fixing of traffic tickets.

Before being questioned, each appellant was warned (1) that anything he said might be used against him in any state criminal proceeding; (2) that he had the privilege to refuse to answer if the disclosure would tend to incriminate him; but (3) that if he refused to answer he would be subject to removal from office.

Appellants answered the questions. No immunity was granted, as there is no immunity statute applicable in these circumstances. Over their objections, some of the answers given were used in subsequent prosecutions for conspiracy to obstruct the administration of the traffic laws. Appellants were convicted and their convictions were sustained over their protests that their statements were coerced, by reason of the fact that, if they refused to answer, they could lose their positions with the police department. See State v. Naglee, 44 N.J. 209, 207 A.2d 689; 44 N.J. 259, 208 A.2d 146.

We postponed the question of jurisdiction to a hearing on the merits. 383 U.S. 941, 86 S.Ct. 941, 16 L.Ed.2d 205. The statute whose validity was sought to be 'drawn in question,' 28 U.S.C. § 1257(2), was the forfeiture statute. But the New Jersey Supreme Court refused to reach that question (44 N.J., at 223, 207 A.2d, at 697), deeming the voluntariness of the statements as the only issue presented. Id., at 220-222, 207 A.2d at 695-696. The statute is therefore too tangentially involved to satisfy 28 U.S.C. § 1257(2), for the only bearing it had was whether, valid or not, the fear of being discharged under it for refusal to answer on the one hand and the fear of self-incrimination on the other was "a choice between the rock and the whirlpool" which made the statements products of coercion in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. We therefore dismiss the appeal, treat the papers as a petition for certiorari (28 U.S.C. § 2103), grant the petition and proceed to the merits.

We agree with the New Jersey Supreme Court that the forfeiture-of-office statute is relevant here only for the bearing it has on the voluntary character of the statements used to convict petitioners in their criminal prosecutions.

The choice imposed on petitioners was one between self-incrimination or job forfeiture. Coercion that vitiates a confession under Chambers v. State of Florida, 309 U.S. 227, 60 S.Ct. 472, 84 L.Ed. 716, and related cases can be 'mental as well as physical'; 'the blood of the accused is not the only hallmark of an unconstitutional inquisition.' Blackburn v. State of Alabama, 361 U.S. 199, 206, 80 S.Ct. 274, 279, 4 L.Ed.2d 242. Subtle pressures (Leyra v. Denno, 347 U.S. 556, 74 S.Ct. 716, 98 L.Ed. 948; Haynes v. State of Washington, 373 U.S. 503, 83 S.Ct. 1336, 10 L.Ed.2d 513) may be as telling as coarse and vulgar ones. The question is whether the accused was deprived of his 'free choice to admit, to deny, or to refuse to answer.' Lisenba v. People of State of California, 314 U.S. 219, 241, 62 S.Ct. 280, 292, 86 L.Ed. 166.

We adhere to Boyd v. United States, 116 U.S. 616, 6 S.Ct. 524, 29 L.Ed. 746, a civil forfeiture action against property. A statute offered the owner an election between producing a document or forfeiture of the goods at issue in the proceeding. This was held to be a form of compulsion in violation of both the Fifth Amendment and the Fourth Amendment. Id., at 634-635, 6 S.Ct. It is that principle that we adhere to and apply in Spevack v. Klein, 385 U.S. 511, 87 S.Ct. 625, 17 L.Ed.2d 574.

The choice given petitioners was either to forfeit their jobs or to incriminate themselves. The option to lose their means of livelihood or to pay the penalty of self-incrimination is the antithesis of free choice to speak out or to remain silent. That practice, like interrogation practices we reviewed in Miranda v. State of Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 464-465, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 1623, 16 L.Ed.2d 694, is 'likely to exert such pressure upon an individual as to disable him from making a free and rational choice.' We think the statements were infected by the coercion inherent in this scheme of questioning and cannot be sustained as voluntary under our prior decisions.

It is said that there was a 'waiver.' That, however, is a federal question for us to decide. Union Pac. R.R. Co. v. Public Service Comm., 248 U.S. 67, 69-70, 39 S.Ct. 24, 25, 63 L.Ed. 131. Stevens v. Marks, supra, 383 U.S. 234, 243-244, 86 S.Ct. 788, 793. The Court in Union Pac. R.R. Co. v. Public Service Comm., supra, in speaking of a certificate exacted under protest and in violation of the Commerce Clause, said:

'Were it otherwise, as conduct under duress involves a     choice, it always would be possible for a State to impose an      unconstitutional burden by the threat of penalties worse than      it in case of a failure to accept it, and then to declare the      acceptance voluntary *  *  * .' Id., 248 U.S., at 70, 39 S.Ct. at 25.

Where the choice is 'between the rock and the whirlpool,' duress is inherent in deciding to 'waive' one or the other.

'It always is for the interest of a party under duress to     choose the lesser of two evils. But the fact that a choice     was made according to interest does not exclude duress. It is     the characteristic of duress properly so called.' Ibid.

In that case appellant paid under protest. In these cases also, though petitioners succumbed to compulsion, they preserved their objections, raising them at the earliest possible point. Cf. Abie State Bank v. Bryan, 282 U.S. 765, 776, 51 S.Ct. 252, 256, 75 L.Ed. 690. The cases are therefore quite different from the situation where one who is anxious to make a clean breast of the whole affair volunteers the information.

Mr. Justice Holmes in McAuliffe v. New Bedford, 155 Mass. 216, 29 N.E. 517, stated a dictum on which New Jersey heavily relies:

'The petitioner may have a constitutional right to talk     politics, but he has no constitutional right to be a      policeman. There are few employments for hire in which the     servant does not agree to suspend his constitutional right of      free speech as well as of idleness by the implied terms of      his contract. The servant cannot complain, as he takes the     employment on the terms which are offered him. On the same     principle the city may impose any reasonable condition upon      holding offices within its control.' Id., at 220, 29 N.E., at      517-518.

The question in this case, however, is not cognizable in those terms. Our question is whether a State, contrary to the requirement of the Fourteenth Amendment, can use the threat of discharge to secure incriminatory evidence against an employee.

We held in Slochower v. Board of Education, 350 U.S. 551, 76 S.Ct. 637, 100 L.Ed. 692, that a public school teacher could not be discharged merely because he had invoked the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination when questioned by a congressional committee:

'The privilege against self-incrimination would be reduced to     a hollow mockery if its exercise could be taken as equivalent      either to a confession of guilt or a conclusive presumption of perjury. * *  * The      privilege serves to protect the innocent who otherwise might      be ensnared by ambiguous circumstances.' Id., at 557-558, 76      S.Ct. at 641.

We conclude that policemen, like teachers and lawyers, are not relegated to a watered-down version of constitutional rights.

There are rights of constitutional stature whose exercise a State may not condition by the exaction of a price. Engaging in interstate commerce is one. Western Union Tel. Co. v. State of Kansas, 216 U.S. 1, 30 S.Ct. 190, 54 L.Ed. 355. Resort to the federal courts in diversity of citizenship cases is another. Terral v. Burke Constr. Co., 257 U.S. 529, 42 S.Ct. 188, 66 L.Ed. 352. Assertion of a First Amendment right is still another. Lovell v. City of Griffin, 303 U.S. 444, 58 S.Ct. 666, 82 L.Ed. 949; Murdock v. Com. of Pennsylvania, 319 U.S. 105, 63 S.Ct. 870, 87 L.Ed. 1292; Thomas v. Collins, 323 U.S. 516, 65 S.Ct. 315, 89 L.Ed. 430; Lamont v. Postmaster General, 381 U.S. 301, 305-306, 85 S.Ct. 1493, 1495-1496, 14 L.Ed.2d 398. The imposition of a burden on the exercise of a Twenty-fourth Amendment right is also banned. Harman v. Forssenius, 380 U.S. 528, 85 S.Ct. 1177, 14 L.Ed.2d 50. We now hold the protection of the individual under the Fourteenth Amendment against coerced statements prohibits use in subsequent criminal proceedings of statements obtained under threat of removal from office, and that it extends to all, whether they are policemen or other members of our body politic.

Reversed.