Sullivan v. United States (348 U.S. 170)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided December 6, 1954 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 348 U.S. 170 · 75 S. Ct. 182
- Docket
- No. 64
- Argued
- November 8, 1954
- Decided
- December 6, 1954
- Term
- October Term 1954
- Vote
- 8–0
- Majority author
- Justice Minton
- Issue area
- Criminal Procedure
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
How the Justices voted
- Majority
- Chief Justice Warren, Justice Black, Justice Douglas, Justice Clark, Justice Frankfurter, Justice Burton, Justice Reed, Justice Minton (wrote)
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Minton delivered the opinion of the Court. Upon pleas of nolo contendere, the petitioner was found guilty of violating the income tax laws by making and filing false and fraudulent returns. The District Court sentenced him to three years’ imprisonment and fined him $13,000. The Court of Appeals affirmed, 212 F. 2d 125, and we granted certiorari, 347 U. S. 1010. On February 28, 1952, a duly constituted grand jury for the District of Kansas indicted the petitioner on four counts for false and fraudulent statements in his individual tax returns and on two counts in another indictment for false and fraudulent returns of the Central Theatre Co., a corporation of which he was president. To these indictments the petitioner entered pleas of not guilty. He later withdrew these pleas, and to two counts of the indictment on his individual returns and to one count on the corporation returns, he entered pleas of nolo contendere. The other counts were dismissed. Before the pleas of nolo contendere were entered, petitioner had filed motions to dismiss the indictments because the evidence upon which they were based was presented to the grand jury by the District Attorney without direction to do so by the Attorney General’s office. These motions were overruled after argument and time for briefing. This presents the first question, namely, were the indictments faulty because,…
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