Dissent Rehnquist | Date decided 2000 | |
Full case name United States of America v. Webster Hubbell Citations 530 U.S. 27 (more)
120 S. Ct. 2037; 147 L. Ed. 2d 24 Majority Stevens, joined by O'Connor, Scalia, Kennedy, Souter, Thomas, Ginsburg, Breyer Concurrence Thomas, joined by Scalia Ruling court Supreme Court of the United States Similar Heath v Alabama, Knowles v Iowa, Rhode Island v Innis | ||
United States v. Hubbell, 530 U.S. 27 (2000), was United States Supreme Court case involving Webster Hubbell, who had been indicted on various tax-related charges, and mail and wire fraud charges, based on documents that the government had subpoenaed from him. The Fifth Amendment provides that no person “shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself.” The Supreme Court has, since 1976, applied the so-called “act-of-production doctrine.” Under this doctrine, a person can invoke his Fifth Amendment rights against the production of documents only where the very act of producing the documents is incriminating in itself.
Contents
Background
This case involved the second prosecution of Webster Hubbell by the Independent Counsel. The prosecution arose from the Independent Counsel's attempt to determine whether Hubbell had violated a promise (part of a plea agreement) to cooperate in the Whitewater investigation. In October 1996, while Hubbell was in jail as a result of the conviction on the guilty plea in the Whitewater case, the Independent Counsel served him with a subpoena duces tecum calling for the production of eleven categories of documents before a grand jury.
In November 1996, Hubbell appeared before the grand jury and invoked his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. In response to questioning by the prosecutor, Hubbell initially refused "to state whether there are documents within my possession, custody, or control responsive to the Subpoena." The prosecutor then produced an order, which had previously been obtained from the District Court pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 6003(a), directing Hubbell to respond to the subpoena and granting him immunity "to the extent allowed by law."
Hubbell then produced 13,120 pages of documents and records. He also responded to a series of questions that established that the produced documents were all of the documents in his custody or control that were responsive to the commands in the subpoena (with the exception of a few documents he claimed were shielded by the attorney-client and attorney work-product privileges).
The contents of the documents produced by Hubbell provided the Independent Counsel with the information that led to the second prosecution.
Procedural history
The U.S. District Court dismissed the indictment against Hubbell, and the Court of Appeals affirmed that decision. The United States Supreme Court agreed to hear the case. Oral arguments were heard February 22, 2000, and the Court announced its decision on June 5.
Opinion of the Court
The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Hubbell. The Court held that the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination protects a witness from being compelled to disclose the existence of incriminating documents that the Government is unable to describe with reasonable particularity. The Court also ruled that if the witness produces such documents, pursuant to a grant of immunity, the government may not use them to prepare criminal charges against him.
Thomas concurrence
Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a separate concurrence examining a wide range of historical materials on the original meaning of the Fifth Amendment. He concluded that the Constitution should protect against the “compelled production not just of incriminating testimony, but of any incriminating evidence.”
Rehnquist Dissenting Statement
Chief Justice William Rehnquist issued a short dissenting statement, dissenting in part for the reasons which had been given in the dissent in the Court of Appeals below.
Quotations from the Supreme Court's opinion
Before the U.S. Supreme Court, the prosecutor argued that because the government's possession of the documents was the fruit only of the simple physical act of Hubbell's production of those documents, Hubbell's immunity should not prevent the prosecutor from making derivative use of the documents, even though Hubbell's production of those documents was the result of Hubbell's compliance with the court order granting him immunity.
The United States Supreme Court rejected the prosecutor's argument. The Court stated:
The Supreme Court also stated:
The Court stated:
The Court also stated:
The Supreme Court upheld the lower courts' decisions throwing out the charges against Hubbell.
Summary of the Act of Production Doctrine
Under the Act of Production Doctrine, the act of an individual in producing documents or materials (e.g., in response to a subpoena) may have a "testimonial aspect" for purposes of the individual's right to assert the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination to the extent that the individual's act of production provides information not already in the hands of law enforcement personnel about the (1) existence; (2) custody; or (3) authenticity, of the documents or materials produced.