OFFICIAL USE ONLY
10. A second and probably perferable course of action would
be for the Commission to issue the attached regulation as a
basis for the Coast Guard taking enforcement measures.
As the
regulation, if issued and violated, carries criminal sanctions
under section 223 of our Act,
the Coast Guard,
acting pursuant
to the Act of August 4, 1949, as amended, 14 U.S.C. section 89,
could arrest the vessel's crew on the high seas.
The
aforementioned provision authorizes the Coast Guard to
'nake * # * arrests upon the high seas * * * for the prevention,
detection, and suppression of violations of laws of the United
States,"
Implementing this authority, Coast Guard personnel
"may at any time go on board of any vessel subject to the
jurisdiction,
or to the operation of any law,
of the United
States" for purposes of inquiry and inspection.
An arrest may
be made when "it appears that a breach of the laws of the
United States rendering a person liable to arrest is being or
has been committed",
If such a procedure were followed, the
vessel's crew, subsequent to the arrest, could be returned to
the jurisdiction of an appropriate Federal district court.
This alternative method of proceeding was favored by the Legal
Counsel's Office of the Department of Justice in view of the
possible delay that might be encountered in obtaining court
action,
and in view of the limitations that might be encountered
in enforcing a court order which found the crew of the "Golden
Rule" in contempt of an injunction.
If the "Golden Rule" sailed
from Honolulu in disregard of an injunction,
application
would have to be made for a court order finding the crew in
contempt.
This requirement would probably permit the ship to
reach the high seas before the contempt order issued,
and the
latters enforcement under such circumstances might not be
legally possible,
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