Mr. Justice CLARK, dissenting.
As I see it the chief fault in the majority opinion is its mischievous curbing of the informing function of the Congress. While I am not versed in its procedures, my experience in the Executive Branch of the Government leads me to believe that the requirements laid down in the opinion for the operation of the committee system of inquiry are both unnecessary and unworkable. It is my purpose to first discuss this phase of the opinion and then record my views on the merits of Watkins' case.
It may be that at times the House Committee on Un-American Activities has, as the Court says, 'conceived of its task in the grand view of its name.' And, perhaps, as the Court Indicates, the rules of conduct placed upon the Committee by the House admit of individual abuse and unfairness. But that is none of our affair. So long as the object of a legislative inquiry is legitimate and the questions propounded are pertinent thereto, it is not for the courts to interfere with the committee system of inquiry. To hold otherwise would be an infringement on the power given the Congress to inform itself, and thus a trespass upon the fundamental American principle of separation of powers. The majority has substituted the judiciary as the grand inquisitor and supervisor of congressional investigations. It has never been so.
Legislative committees to inquire into facts or conditions for assurance of the public welfare or to determine the need for legislative action have grown in importance with the complexity of government. The investigation that gave rise to this prosecution is of the latter type. Since many matters requiring statutory action lie in the domain of the specialist or are unknown without testimony from informed witnesses, the need for information has brought about legislative inquiries that have used the compulsion of the subpoena to lay bare needed facts and a statute, 2 U.S.C. § 192, 2 U.S.C.A. § 192 here involved, to punish recalcitrant witnesses. The propriety of investigations has long been recognized and rarely curbed by the courts, though constitutional limitations on the investigatory powers are admitted. The use of legislative committees to secure information follows the example of the people from whom our legislative system is derived. The British method has variations from that of the United States but fundamentally serves the same purpose-the enlightenment of Parliament for the better performance of its duties. There are standing committees to carry on the routine work, royal commissions to grapple with important social or economic problems, and special tribunals of inquiry for some alleged offense in government. Our Congress has since its beginning used the committee system to inform itself. It has been estimated that over 600 investigations have been conducted since the First Congress. They are 'a necessary and appropriate attribute of the power to legislate * * *.' McGrain v. Daugherty, 1927, 273 U.S. 135, 175, 47 S.Ct. 319, 329, 71 L.Ed. 580.
The Court indicates that in this case the source of the trouble lies in the 'tremendous latitude' given the Un-American Activities Committee in the Legislative Reorganization Act. It finds that the Committee 'is allowed, in essence, to define its own authority, (and) to choose the direction and focus of its activities.' This, of course, is largely true of all committees within their respective spheres. And, while it is necessary that the 'charter,' as the opinion calls the enabling resolution, 'spell out (its) jurisdiction and purpose,' that must necessarily be in more or less general terms. An examination of the enabling resolutions of other committees reveals the extent to which this istrue.