702
Opinion of the Court
turn our attention to that case before deciding the fate of the judicial function exception.
III
Defendant Bramblett was a former Member of Congress who had falsely represented to the Disbursing Office of the House of Representatives that a particular person was entitled to compensation as his official clerk. He argued that he could not be convicted under § 1001 because his falsehood was directed to an office within the Legislative Branch. 348 U. S., at 504. The Court rejected this argument, concluding that the word "department," as used in § 1001, "was meant to describe the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the Government." Id., at 509. Although Bramblett involved Congress, not the courts, the text and reasoning in the Court's opinion amalgamated all three branches of the Government. Thus, Bramblett is highly relevant here even though its narrow holding only extended § 1001 to false statements made within the Legislative Branch.
We think Bramblett must be acknowledged as a seriously flawed decision. Significantly, the Bramblett Court made no attempt to reconcile its interpretation with the usual meaning of "department." It relied instead on a review of the evolution of § 1001 and its statutory cousin, the false claims statute presently codified at 18 U. S. C. § 287, as providing a "context" for the conclusion that "Congress could not have intended to leave frauds such as [Bramblett's] without penalty." 348 U. S., at 509. We are convinced that the Court erred by giving insufficient weight to the plain language of §§ 6 and 1001.5 Although the historical evolution of a stat-5 In addition, it is debatable at best whether the Court was correct in asserting that, but for its expansive interpretation of § 1001, Bramblett's fraud would necessarily have gone unpunished. In discussing the evolution of § 1001, the Court noted that the false claims statute, originally enacted in 1863 and by 1955 codified at 18 U. S. C. § 287, "clearly covers the presentation of false claims against any component of the Government
Page: Index Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007