United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Raley v. Ohio, 360 U.S. 423 (1959)

Raley v. Ohio

No. 175

Argued April 22-23, 1959

Decided June 22, 1959*

360 U.S. 423

Syllabus

The four appellants were convicted in state courts for refusing to answer questions about Communistic or subversive activities put to them at sessions of the "Un-American Activities Commission" established in the legislative branch of the Ohio Government. Each was led by the Commission to believe that the privilege against self-incrimination afforded by the Ohio Constitution was generally available to him, and each relied on that privilege; but the Ohio Supreme Court sustained their convictions on the ground that the privilege was not able to them, because a state immunity statute deprived them of the protection of that privilege.

Held:

1. The appeals are dismissed for want of jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. §1257(2), since appellants have not demonstrated that an attack was made by them in the state courts on the validity of a state statute under the Federal Constitution; but certiorari is granted, since various rights, privileges and immunities under the Federal Constitution were claimed in the state courts, as required by 28 U.S.C. §1257(3). Pp. 360 U. S. 434-437.

2. The convictions of three of the appellants violated the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, since they were entrapped by being convicted for exercising a privilege which the Commission had led them to believe was available to them. Pp. 360 U. S. 437-440.

3. The conviction of the other appellant for refusing to state where he lived after being directed by the Commission to do so is affirmed by an equally divided Court. Pp. 360 U. S. 440-442, 360 U. S. 442-445.

167 Ohio St. 295, 147 N. E. 2d 847, affirmed in part and reversed in part.

Page 360 U. S. 424