United States v. Hood et al. (343 U.S. 148)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided March 31, 1952 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 343 U.S. 148 · 72 S. Ct. 568
- Decided
- March 31, 1952
- Term
- October Term 1951
- Vote
- 5–4
- Majority author
- Justice Frankfurter
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Opinion of the Court by Mr. Justice Frankfurter, announced by The Chief Justice. The defendants were charged in the District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi with a conspiracy to violate 18 U. S. C. (Supp. IV) § 215 and numerous substantive violations of the same section. The law provides: “Whoever solicits or receives, either as a political contribution, or for personal emolument, any money or thing of value, in consideration of the promise of support or use of influence in obtaining for any person any appointive office or place under the United States, shall be fined not more than $1,000 or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.” The indictment charged a conspiracy to solicit contributions to the Mississippi Democratic Committee and to the defendants personally in return for promises to use influence to obtain for the contributors appointments in the Post Office Department and in the Office of Price Stabilization. Other counts of the indictment charged substantive violations. Material here are counts 31, 32, and 33 charging the solicitation by two of the defendants of three $300 political contributions from named individuals in return for the promise of support and influence on behalf of the contributors to secure for them appointments as Chairmen of the County Ration Boards of Pike, Amite and Lawrence Counties, respectively. It is stipulated that no such…
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