Opinion of the Court. 327 U. S. thus fails to define adequately the scope of the power given to the military and to show whether the Organic Act provides that courts of law be supplanted by military tribunals. II. Since the Act's language does not provide a satisfactory answer, we look to the legislative history for possible further aid in interpreting the term "martial law” as used in the statute. The Government contends that the legislative history shows that Congress intended to give the armed forces extraordinarily broad powers to try civilians before military tribunals. Its argument is as follows: That portion of the language of § 67 which prescribes the prerequisites to declaring martial law is identical with a part of the language of the original Constitution of Hawaii. Before Congress enacted the Organic Act the supreme court of Hawaii had construed that language as giving the Hawaiian President power to authorize military tribunals to try civilians charged with crime whenever the public safety required it. In re Kalanianaole, 10 Hawaii 29. When Congress passed the Organic Act it simply enacted the applicable language of the Hawaiian Constitution and with it the interpretation of that language by the Hawaiian supreme court. In disposing of this argument we wish to point out at the outset that even had Congress intended the decision in the Kalanianaole case to become part of the Organic Act, that case did not go so far as to authorize military trials of the petitioners for these reasons. There the defendants were insurrectionists taking part in the very uprising which the military were to suppress, while here the petitioners had no connection with any organized resistance to the armed forces or the established government. If, on the other hand, we should take the Kalanianaole case to authorize the complete supplanting of courts by military tribunals, we are certain that Congress did not wish to make that case part of the Organic Act. For that case did not merely uphold military trials of civilians but also held that courts were to interfere only when there was an obvious abuse of discretion which resulted in cruel and inhuman practices or the establishment of military rule for the personal gain of the President and the armed forces. But courts were not to review whether the President's action, no matter how unjustifiable, was necessary for the public safety. As we shall indicate later, military trials of civilians charged with crime, especially when not made subject to judicial review, are so obviously contrary to our political traditions and our institution of jury trials in courts of law, that the tenuous circumstance offered by the Government can hardly suffice to persuade us that Congress was willing to enact a Hawaiian supreme court decision permitting such a radical departure from our steadfast beliefs.12 Partly in order to meet this objection the Government further contends that Congress, in enacting the Kalanianaole case, not only authorized military trials of civilians in Hawaii, but also could and intended to provide that "martial law" in Hawaii should not be limited by the United States Constitution or by established constitutional practice. But when the Organic Act is read as a whole and in the light of its legislative history it becomes clear that Congress did not intend the Constitution to have a limited application to Hawaii. Along with § 67 Congress enacted § 5 of the Organic Act which provides "that the Constitution .. shall have the same force and effect within the said Territory as elsewhere in the United States . . ." 31 Stat. 141. 31 Stat. 141. Even when Hawaii 12 We point out in this connection that by § 83 of the Organic Act Congress provided how juries should be constituted and provided for the drawing of grand juries and for unanimous jury verdicts in criminal cases. 31 Stat. 141, 157. Opinion of the Court. 327 U.S. was first annexed Congress had provided that the Territory's existing laws should remain in effect unless contrary to the Constitution. 30 Stat. 750. And the House Committee Report in explaining § 5 of the Organic Act stated: "Probably the same result would obtain without this provision under section 1891, chapter 1, Title XXIII, of the Revised Statutes, but to prevent possible question, the section is inserted in the bill." 18 (Italics supplied.) Congress thus expressed a strong desire to apply the Constitution without qualification. It follows that civilians in Hawaii are entitled to the constitutional guarantee of a fair trial to the same extent as those who live in any other part of our country. We are aware that conditions peculiar to Hawaii might imperatively demand extraordinarily speedy and effective measures in the event of actual or threatened invasion. But this also holds true for other parts of the United States. Extraordinary measures in Hawaii, however necessary, are not supportable on the mistaken premise that Hawaiian inhabitants are less entitled to constitutional protection than others. For here Congress did not in the Organic Act exercise whatever power it might have 18 Government for the Territory of Hawaii, H. Rep. No. 305, 56th Cong., 1st Sess., p. 10. In the House, Representative Knox, the Republican leader for the bill, stated: "This bill, in so many words, extends the Constitution to Hawaii; so that there has not been practically a moment of time since the Hawaiian Islands were annexed to the United States that the Constitution has not been the standard by which all the laws of that country must be measured... The decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States will be equally operative in Hawaii as in any portion of the United States as to any constitutional right which he possesses." 33 Cong. Rec. 3704, 3709 (1900). See the following decisions of this Court relating to the applicability of the Constitution to United States Territories. Hawaii v. Mankichi, 190 U. S. 197; Rassmussen v. United States, 197 U. S. 516; Farrington v. Tokushige, 273 U. S. 284. See also Frank, Ex parte Milligan v. The Five Companies: Martial Law in Hawaii (1944) 44 Col. L. Rev. 639, 658-660. had to limit the application of the Constitution. Cf. Hawaii v. Mankichi, 190 U. S. 197. The people of Hawaii are therefore entitled to constitutional protection to the same extent as the inhabitants of the 48 States. And Congress did not enact the Hawaiian supreme court's decision in the Kalanianaole case and thus authorize the military trials of petitioners. Whatever power the Organic Act gave the Hawaiian military authorities, such power must therefore be construed in the same way as a grant of power to troops stationed in any one of the States. III. Since both the language of the Organic Act and its legislative history fail to indicate that the scope of "martial law" in Hawaii includes the supplanting of courts by military tribunals, we must look to other sources in order to interpret that term. We think the answer may be found in the birth, development and growth of our governmental institutions up to the time Congress passed the Organic Act. Have the principles and practices developed during the birth and growth of our political institutions been such as to persuade us that Congress intended that loyal civilians in loyal territory should have their daily conduct governed by military orders substituted for criminal laws, and that such civilians should be tried and punished by military tribunals? Let us examine what those principles and practices have been, with respect to the position of civilian government and the courts and compare that with the standing of military tribunals throughout our history. People of many ages and countries have feared and unflinchingly opposed the kind of subordination of executive, legislative and judicial authorities to complete military rule which, according to the Government, Congress has authorized here. In this country that fear has become part of our cultural and political institutions. The story of that development is well known and we see no Opinion of the Court. 15 327 U.S. need to retell it all. But we might mention a few pertinent incidents. As early as the 17th Century our British ancestors took political action against aggressive military rule. When James I and Charles I authorized martial law for purposes of speedily punishing all types of crimes committed by civilians the protest led to the historic Petition of Right" which in uncompromising terms objected to this arbitrary procedure and prayed that it be stopped and never repeated. When later the American colonies declared their independence one of the grievances listed by Jefferson was that the King had endeavored to render the military superior to the civil power. The executive and military officials who later found it necessary to utilize the armed forces to keep order in a young and turbulent nation, did not lose sight of the philosophy embodied in the Petition of Right and the Declaration of Independence, that existing civilian government and especially the courts were not to be interfered with by the exercise of military power. In 1787, the year in which the Constitution was formulated, the Governor of Massachusetts Colony used the militia to cope with Shay's Rebellion. In his instructions to the Commander of the troops the Governor listed the "great objects" of the mission. The troops were to "protect the judicial courts.. "to assist the civil magistrates in executing the laws " and to "aid them in apprehending the disturbers of the public peace The Commander was to consider himself "constantly as under the direction of the civil officer, saving where any armed force shall appear and oppose .. [his] marching to execute these orders." 16 President Washington's in 14 3 Chas. I, c. 1. " 15 Hallam, Constitutional History, (2d ed.) Vol. I, c. ví, pp. 531, 532, 533. See also discussions in dissent in Luther v. Borden, 7 How. 1, 48, 63; In re McDonald, 49 Mont. 454, 468, 143 P. 947. 16 Federal Aid in Domestic Disturbances, Senate Document No. 263, 67th Cong., 2d Sess., 10. |