United States v. Hubbell
| United States v. Hubbell | |
|---|---|
| Argued February 22, 2000 Decided June 5, 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; 2000 U.S. LEXIS 3768 |
| Case history | |
| Prior | 11 F. Supp. 2d 25 (D.D.C. 1998); vacated and remanded, 167 F.3d 552 (D.C. Cir. 1999); 44 F. Supp. 2d 1 (D.D.C. 1999); reversed, 177 F.3d 11 (D.C. Cir. 1999); cert. granted, 528 U.S. 926 (2000). |
| Holding | |
| (1) The Fifth Amendment privilege against compelled 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; and (2) Where the witness produces such documents pursuant to a grant of immunity, 18 U. S. C. §6002 prevents the Government from using them to prepare criminal charges against the witness. | |
| Court membership | |
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| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Stevens, joined by O'Connor, Scalia, Kennedy, Souter, Thomas, Ginsburg, Breyer |
| Concurrence | Thomas, joined by Scalia |
| Dissent | Rehnquist |
| Laws applied | |
| U.S. Const. amend. V; 18 USC section 6003 (a) | |
United States v. Hubbell, 530 U.S. 27 (2000), was a 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.