## Facts

- Jose Rodriguez was a member of the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional (FALN), an armed clandestine group seeking Puerto Rican independence that claimed responsibility for bombings and other violence in the Chicago area.
- With judicial authorization, federal agents installed hidden cameras and microphones at two FALN safe houses and conducted roughly five months of electronic surveillance.
- On April 17, 1983, surveillance captured Rodriguez and another FALN member meeting at a safe house and discussing FALN operations, including plans to free incarcerated members, obtain sets of false identification, use code names, avoid law enforcement surveillance, and share funds among FALN groups nationwide.
- Within about a month of that meeting, Rodriguez used another person’s name, birthdate, and social security number (a disabled young man under Rodriguez’s care) to obtain a Chicago public library card and then an Illinois driver’s license in that assumed identity.
- On June 29, 1983, agents arrested Rodriguez and three others for conspiring to bomb a Marine Training Center and an Army Reserve Training Center in Chicago.
- At trial, the government presented evidence that Rodriguez knowingly participated in the charged conspiracy and intended to drive coconspirators to the bombing locations.
- Rodriguez was convicted in the Northern District of Illinois of seditious conspiracy under 18 U.S.C. § 2384 (conspiracy to oppose by force the authority of the United States).
- Rodriguez appealed, challenging the statute’s constitutionality and raising selective-prosecution, evidentiary, and jury-instruction claims.

## Issues

1. Whether 18 U.S.C. § 2384 is unconstitutional under Article III’s Treason Clause because it punishes “constructive treason” without treason’s constitutional definition and safeguards.
2. Whether Rodriguez proved he was selected for prosecution on an impermissible basis (selective prosecution).
3. Whether the district court erred by admitting (a) the court-authorized video/audio surveillance recordings and (b) evidence that Rodriguez obtained and used false identification.
4. Whether the district court’s jury instructions incorrectly stated the elements of seditious conspiracy under § 2384.

## Decision

- The Seventh Circuit rejected all four appellate arguments and affirmed the judgment of conviction.
- The court held that § 2384 does not violate the Treason Clause and is not an unconstitutional form of “constructive treason.”
- The court concluded Rodriguez failed to establish selective prosecution.
- The court upheld admission of the surveillance recordings and the false-identification evidence.
- The court found no reversible error in the jury instructions when considered as a whole.

## Legal Principles

- The Treason Clause limits the crime of treason as defined in Article III, but it does not prevent Congress from creating and enforcing separate offenses aimed at protecting the United States from forceful opposition; seditious conspiracy under 18 U.S.C. § 2384 may be punished without meeting treason’s constitutional requirements.
- A selective-prosecution claim requires proof of both discriminatory effect (similarly situated persons not prosecuted) and discriminatory purpose (a charging decision based on an impermissible classification or other constitutionally forbidden reason); unsupported allegations are not enough.
- Court-authorized covert recordings may be admitted when they are probative of the existence, objectives, and membership of a charged conspiracy, subject to ordinary evidentiary limits on unfair prejudice.
- Evidence that a defendant obtained or used false identification may be admitted where it tends to show knowledge, intent, concealment, preparation, or participation in a clandestine conspiracy, with review focused on whether the trial court abused its discretion.
- Jury instructions are evaluated in their entirety; reversal is not warranted if the instructions fairly state the law and do not mislead the jury about the government’s burden to prove the elements of § 2384 beyond a reasonable doubt.

## Conclusion

The Seventh Circuit affirmed Jose Rodriguez’s seditious-conspiracy conviction arising from his FALN involvement and a plot to bomb military facilities, holding that § 2384 does not conflict with the Treason Clause, that Rodriguez did not prove selective prosecution, and that the district court properly admitted the surveillance and false-identification evidence and correctly instructed the jury on the offense’s elements.


United States v. Rodriguez, 803 F.2d 318 (1986)