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Page Number: 12.0

Cite as:  591 U. S. ____ (2020) 

7 

Opinion of the Court 

1807), in 10 Works of Thomas Jefferson 398, n. (P. Ford ed.
1905).  His “personal attendance,” however, was out of the 
question, for it “would leave the nation without” the “sole
branch which the constitution requires to be always in func-
tion.”  Letter from T. Jefferson to G. Hay (June 17, 1807), 
in id., at 400–401, n. 

Before  Burr  received  the  subpoenaed  documents,  Mar-
shall rejected the prosecution’s core legal theory for treason
and  Burr  was  accordingly  acquitted.    Jefferson,  however, 
was not done.  Committed to salvaging a conviction, he di-
rected the prosecutors to proceed with a misdemeanor (yes, 
misdemeanor) charge for inciting war against Spain.  Burr 
then renewed his request for Wilkinson’s October 21 letter,
which he later received a copy of, and subpoenaed a second
letter,  dated  November  12,  1806,  which  the  prosecutor
claimed was privileged.  Acknowledging that the President 
may withhold information to protect public safety, Marshall 
instructed that Jefferson should “state the particular rea-
sons” for withholding the letter.  United States v. Burr, 25 
F. Cas. 187, 192 (No. 14,694) (CC Va. 1807).  The court, pay-
ing “all proper respect” to those reasons, would then decide 
whether to compel disclosure.  Ibid.  But that decision was 
averted when the misdemeanor trial was cut short after it 
became  clear  that  the  prosecution  lacked  the  evidence  to 
convict. 

In the two centuries since the Burr trial, successive Pres-
idents have accepted Marshall’s ruling that the Chief Exec-
utive is subject to subpoena.  In 1818, President Monroe re-
ceived a subpoena to testify in a court-martial against one
of his appointees.  See Rotunda, Presidents and Ex-Presi-
dents as Witnesses: A Brief Historical Footnote, 1975 U. Ill. 
L. Forum 1, 5.  His Attorney General, William Wirt—who
had  served  as  a  prosecutor  during  Burr’s  trial—advised 
Monroe  that,  per  Marshall’s  ruling,  a  subpoena  to  testify 
may  “be  properly  awarded  to  the  President.”    Id.,  at  5–6.