Robert H. Jackson

“ Despite this notice, Congress did not see fit to state what meaning it attributes to the phrase 'crime involving moral turpitude.' It is not one which has settled significance from being words of art in the profession. If we go to the dictionaries, the last resort of the baffled judge, we learn little except that the expression is redundant, for turpitude alone means moral wickedness or depravity [6] and moral turpitude seems to mean little more than morally immoral. ”

“ We suspect that moral standards which prevail as to possession or sale of liquor that has evaded tax may not be uniform in all parts of the country, nor in all levels of 'contemporary society.' How should we ascertain the moral sentiments of masses of persons on any better basis than a guess? ”

“ Respondent, because he is an alien, and because he has been twice convicted of crimes the Court holds involve 'moral turpitude,' is punished with a life sentence of banishment in addition to the punishment which a citizen would suffer for the identical acts. Mr. Justice BLACK, Mr. Justice FRANKFURTER and I cannot agree, because we believe the phrase 'crime involving moral turpitude,' as found in the Immigration Act, [1] has no sufficiently definite meaning to be a constitutional standard for deportation. ”

“ The use of the phrase by state courts for various civil proceedings affords no teaching for federal courts. The Federal Government has no common-law crimes and the judges are not permitted to define crimes by decision, for they rest solely in statute. ”

“ If the Act contemplated that repetition of any serious crime would be grounds for deportation, it would have been simple and intelligible to have mentioned felonies. But the language used indicates that there are felonies which are not included and perhaps that some misdemeanors are. We cannot see that seriousness affords any standard of guidance.
Respondent suggests here, and the Government has on other occasions taken the position, that the traditional distinction between crimes mala prohibita and those mala in se will afford a key for the inclusions and exclusions of this statute. ”

“ Irrationality is inherent in the task of translating the religious and ethical connotations of the phrase into legal decisions. The lower court cases seem to rest, as we feel this Court's decision does, upon the moral reactions of particular judges to particular offenses. What is striking about the opinions in these 'moral turpitude' cases is the wearisome repetition of cliche § attempting to define 'moral turpitude,' usually a quotation from Bouvier. ”

“ So far as this offense is concerned with whiskey, it is not particularly un-American, and we see no reason to strain to make the penalty for the same act so much more severe in the case of an alien 'bootlegger' than it is in the case of a native 'moonshiner.' I have never discovered that disregard of the Nation's liquor taxes excluded a citizen from our best society and I see no reason why it should banish an alien from our worst. ”

“ All of these prior statutes allowed deportation for conviction for every felony or crime, which meant for conviction of every crime involving a sentence of not less than a year. It then added another deportable category, to wit, misdemeanors involving moral turpitude. In addition to all crimes involving a sentence of a year or more, the earlier Acts carved out a small category of petty offenses, when they were of a kind 'involving moral turpitude,' i.e., offenses even though carrying a small sentence having a manifestation of intrinsic badness. ”

“ Woods * * * I would make provisions to get rid of an alien in this country who comes here and commits felonies and burglaries, holds you up on the streets, and commits crimes against our daughters, because we do not want that kind of alien here, and they have no right to be here. * * * The rule is that if we get a man in this country who has not become a citizen, who knocks down people in the street, who murders or who attempts to murder people, who burglarizes our houses with blackjack and revolver, who attacks our women in the city, those people should not be here. ”