Supreme Court of the United States
Watkins v. United States
June 17, 1957354 U.S. 178
Summary
The Court reversed Watkins's conviction for refusing to answer questions before a congressional committee because the subject of the inquiry and the pertinency of the questions were not stated with sufficient clarity to satisfy due process. It held that congressional investigations, although broad, remain subject to constitutional limits protecting individual rights and must be authorized and conducted with enough specificity to permit a witness to know whether refusal may result in criminal punishment. Justice Frankfurter concurred in emphasizing contemporaneous clarity, while Justice Clark, dissenting, would have upheld the conviction and rejected the majority's restrictions on congressional investigations.