United States v. Janowitz

Background

The case involves people who bought war savings certificates and the special stamps attached to them, and the United States through the Treasury Department. The indictment contains two counts charging violations of § 37 and § 148 of the Criminal Code and the Act of Congress of September 24, 1917. It alleges the buyers purchased certificates and stamps from sellers not authorized by the Secretary of the Treasury, knew the items were nontransferable and not redeemable by them, and conspired to detach and reattach stamps to blank certificates to obtain payment before maturity. One defendant, Janowitz, maintained an office in the Southern District of New York during August and September 1919 for buying certificates and stamps.

Reasoning

The core question was whether the Treasury Secretary could lawfully issue circulars and require nontransferability conditions on war savings certificates and stamps. The District Court had accepted the buyers’ argument that the items became ordinary property and that the Secretary lacked authority to forbid transfers. The Supreme Court, applying the reasoning from the companion Sacks case, rejected that view. The Court held the Secretary had authority to prescribe the conditions in the circulars and that the facts alleged in the indictments were sufficient to state crimes under the cited statutes.

Real world impact

The decision permits criminal prosecutions to proceed against people who trade, alter, or try to redeem wartime certificates and stamps obtained outside authorized channels. It affirms the Treasury’s power to restrict transfers to protect the government’s payment system. The judgment reverses the District Court and sends the case back for further proceedings in line with this opinion.

Dissents or concurrances

The District Court judge had emphasized that stamps are things of value and that forbidding their transfer reduced lawfully existing property rights unless Congress clearly authorized such a restriction.