United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Kessler v. Strecker, 307 U.S. 22 (1939)

Kessler v. Strecker

No. 330

Argued February 10, 13, 1939

Decided April 17, 1939

307 U.S. 22

Syllabus

1. Section 1 of the Act of October 16, 1918, as amended, provides that aliens of described classes, including

"aliens who believe in, advise, advocate, or teach, or who are members of or affiliated with any organization, association, society, or group, that believes in, advises, advocates, or teaches . . . the overthrow by force or violence of the Government of the United States . . . ,"

shall be excluded from admission to the United States. Section 2 provides that

"any alien who at any time after entering the United States is found to have been, at the time of entry, or to have become thereafter, a member of any of the classes of aliens enumerated"

in Section 1, shall, upon warrant of the Secretary of Labor, be taken into custody and deported, in the manner provided by law.

Held that an alien who, after entry, becomes a member of such an organization is not deportable on that ground if, at the time of his arrest, his membership has ceased. P. 307 U. S. 30.

2. The legislative history of the statute supports this conclusion. P. 307 U. S. 30.

3. This reading of the statute makes it unnecessary in this case to pass upon the adequacy of the evidence before the Secretary concerning

Page 307 U. S. 23

the purposes and aims of the Communist Party or the propriety of the court's taking judicial notice thereof. P. 307 U. S. 33.

4. The record in this case does not justify reversal of a holding of the court below that the evidence before the Secretary of Labor was insufficient to support his finding that the respondent alien believes in and teaches the overthrow, by force and violence, of the Government of the United States. P. 307 U. S. 34.

5. When no issue of citizenship is raised, an administrative order for deportation of an alien, made after fair hearing, based on findings supported by evidence and without error of law, is conclusive; if any of these elements was lacking, it is void. The matter cannot be tried de novo in habeas corpus. P. 307 U. S. 34.

95 F.2d 976; 96 id. 1020, affirmed with modification.

Certiorari, 305 U.S. 587, to review the reversal of a judgment dismissing a writ of habeas corpus.