UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT DECISIONS ON-LINE

TRAVIS V. UNITED STATES, 364 U. S. 631 (1961)

364 U. S. 631

U.S. Supreme Court

Travis v. United States, 364 U.S. 631 (1961)

Travis v. United States

No. 10

Argued December 13, 1960

Decided January 16, 1961

364 U.S. 631

Syllabus

Petitioner was indicted in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado under 18 U.S.C. § 1001 for making and executing in Colorado and filing with the National Labor Relations Board in Washington, D.C., under § 9(h) of the National Labor Relations Act, as it then stood, false affidavits that he was not a member of the Communist Party and was not affiliated with it. The affidavits were executed by petitioner as a union officer in Colorado and mailed there to the Board in Washington, D.C., where they were received and filed. Notwithstanding a timely objection to the venue, petitioner was tried and convicted in Colorado.

Held: venue lay only in the District of Columbia, where § 9(h) and the Board's regulations required the affidavits to be "on file with the Board," and the judgment is reversed. Pp. 364 U. S. 632-637.

(a) The words of § 9(h), "unless there is on file with the Board," suggest that the filing must be completed before there is a "matter within the jurisdiction" of the Board, within the meaning of 18 U.S.C. § 1001, and § 9(h) makes the criminal penalty applicable only to affidavits "on file with the Board." Pp. 364 U. S. 635-636.

(b) When 18 U.S.C. § 3237 is read in the light of the constitutional requirements and the explicit provision of § 9(h), the locus of the offense has been carefully specified, and only the single act of having a false statement "on file with the Board" is penalized. Pp. 364 U. S. 636-637.

269 F.2d 928 reversed.

268 F.2d 218 and 280 F.2d 430, judgments vacated. clubjuris

Page 364 U. S. 632


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