Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/524/399/
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 22:16:12+00:00

Document:
REHNQUIST, C. J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which STEVENS, KENNEDY, SOUTER, GINSBURG, and BREYER, JJ., joined. O'CONNOR, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which SCALIA and THOMAS, JJ., joined, post, p.411.
James Hamilton, pro se, argued the cause for petitioners.
With him on the briefs was Robert v: Zener.
Petitioner James Hamilton, an attorney, made notes of an initial interview with a client shortly before the client's death. The Government, represented by the Office of Independent Counsel, now seeks his notes for use in a criminal investigation. We hold that the notes are protected by the attorney-client privilege.
*Briefs of amici curiae urging reversal were filed for the American Bar Association by Jerome J. Shestack, William H. Jeffress, Jr., and Scott L. Nelson, Jr.; for the American College of Trial Lawyers by Edward Brodsky and Alan J. Davis; and for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers et al. by Mark I. Levy, Timothy K. Armstrong, Lisa B. Kemler, Steven Alan Bennett, Arthur H. Bryant, and Richard G. Taranto.
handwritten notes. One of the first entries in the notes is the word "Privileged." Nine days later, Foster committed suicide.
In December 1995, a federal grand jury, at the request of the Independent Counsel, issued subpoenas to petitioners Hamilton and Swidler & Berlin for, inter alia, Hamilton's handwritten notes of his meeting with Foster. Petitioners filed a motion to quash, arguing that the notes were protected by the attorney-client privilege and by the work-product privilege. The District Court, after examining the notes in camera, concluded they were protected from disclosure by both doctrines and denied enforcement of the subpoenas.
tions to the privilege. 124 F. 3d, at 235. The Court of Appeals also held that the notes were not protected by the work-product privilege.
The dissenting judge would have affirmed the District Court's judgment that the attorney-client privilege protected the notes. Id., at 237. He concluded that the common-law rule was that the privilege survived death. He found no persuasive reason to depart from this accepted rule, particularly given the importance of the privilege to full and frank client communication. I d., at 237.
Petitioners sought review in this Court on both the attorney-client privilege and the work-product privilege.1 We granted certiorari, 523 U. S. 1045 (1998), and we now reverse.
The attorney-client privilege is one of the oldest recognized privileges for confidential communications. Upjohn Co. v. United States, 449 U. S. 383, 389 (1981); Hunt v. Blackburn, 128 U. S. 464, 470 (1888). The privilege is intended to encourage "full and frank communication between attorneys and their clients and thereby promote broader public interests in the observance of law and the administration of justice." Upjohn, supra, at 389. The issue presented here is the scope of that privilege; more particularly, the extent to which the privilege survives the death of the client. Our interpretation of the privilege's scope is guided by "the principles of the common law ... as interpreted by the courts ... in the light of reason and experience." Fed. Rule Evid. 501; Funk v. United States, 290 U. S. 371 (1933).
1 Because we sustain the claim of attorney-client privilege, we do not reach the claim of work-product privilege.
and the Court of Appeals below have held the privilege may be subject to posthumous exceptions in certain circumstances. In Cohen, a civil case, the court recognized that the privilege generally survives death, but concluded that it could make an exception where the interest of justice was compelling and the interest of the client in preserving the confidence was insignificant. Id., at 462-464, 357 A. 2d, at 692-693.
But other than these two decisions, cases addressing the existence of the privilege after death-most involving the testamentary exception-uniformly presume the privilege survives, even if they do not so hold. See, e. g., Mayberry v. Indiana, 670 N. E. 2d 1262 (Ind. 1996); Morris v. Cain, 39 La. Ann. 712, 1 So. 797 (1887); People v. Modzelewski, 611 N. Y. S. 2d 22, 203 A. 2d 594 (App. Div. 1994). Several State Supreme Court decisions expressly hold that the attorneyclient privilege extends beyond the death of the client, even in the criminal context. See In re John Doe Grand Jury Investigation, 408 Mass. 480, 481-483, 562 N. E. 2d 69, 70 (1990); State v. Doster, 276 S. C. 647, 650-651, 284 S. E. 2d 218, 219 (1981); State v. Macumber, 112 Ariz. 569, 571, 544 P. 2d 1084, 1086 (1976). In John Doe Grand Jury Investigation, for example, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court concluded that survival of the privilege was "the clear implication" of its early pronouncements that communications subject to the privilege could not be disclosed at any time. 408 Mass., at 483, 562 N. E. 2d, at 70. The court further noted that survival of the privilege was "necessarily implied" by cases allowing waiver of the privilege in testamentary disputes. Ibid.
Indeed, in Glover v. Patten, 165 U. S. 394, 406-408 (1897), this Court, in recognizing the testamentary exception, expressly assumed that the privilege continues after the individual's death. The Court explained that testamentary disclosure was permissible because the privilege, which normally protects the client's interests, could be impliedly waived in order to fulfill the client's testamentary intent. Id., at 407-408 (quoting Blackburn v. Crawfords, 3 Wall. 175 (1866), and Russell v. Jackson, supra).
2 About half the States have codified the testamentary exception by providing that a personal representative of the deceased can waive the privilege when heirs or devisees claim through the deceased client (as opposed to parties claiming against the estate, for whom the privilege is not waived). See, e. g., Ala. Rule Evid. 502 (1996); Ark. Code Ann. § 16-41101, Rule 502 (Supp. 1997); Neb. Rev. Stat. §27-503, Rule 503 (1995). These statutes do not address expressly the continuation of the privilege outside the context of testamentary disputes, although many allow the attorney to assert the privilege on behalf of the client apparently without temporal limit. See, e. g., Ark. Code Ann. § 16-41-101, Rule 502(c) (Supp. 1997). They thus do not refute or affirm the general presumption in the case law that the privilege survives. California's statute is exceptional in that it apparently allows the attorney to assert the privilege only so long as a holder of the privilege (the estate's personal representative) exists, suggesting the privilege terminates when the estate is wound up. See Cal. Code Evid. Ann. §§ 954, 957 (West 1995). But no other State has followed California's lead in this regard.
ent Counsel to show that "reason and experience" require a departure from this rule.
But the Independent Counsel's interpretation simply does not square with the case law's implicit acceptance of the privilege's survival and with the treatment of testamentary disclosure as an "exception" or an implied "waiver." And the premise of his analogy is incorrect, since cases consistently recognize that the rationale for the testamentary exception is that it furthers the client's intent, see, e. g., Glover, supra. There is no reason to suppose as a general matter that grand jury testimony about confidential communications furthers the client's intent.
d (Proposed Final Draft No.1, Mar. 29, 1996). But even these critics clearly recognize that established law supports the continuation of the privilege and that a contrary rule would be a modification of the common law. See, e. g., Mueller & Kirkpatrick, supra, at 379; Restatement of the Law Governing Lawyers, supra, § 127, Comment c; 24 C. Wright & K. Graham, Federal Practice and Procedure § 5498, p. 483 (1986).
act as counselors on personal and family matters, where, in the course of obtaining the desired advice, confidences about family members or financial problems must be revealed in order to assure sound legal advice. The same is true of owners of small businesses who may regularly consult their attorneys about a variety of problems arising in the course of the business. These confidences may not come close to any sort of admission of criminal wrongdoing, but nonetheless be matters which the client would not wish divulged.
The contention that the attorney is being required to disclose only what the client could have been required to disclose is at odds with the basis for the privilege even during the client's lifetime. In related cases, we have said that the loss of evidence admittedly caused by the privilege is justified in part by the fact that without the privilege, the client may not have made such communications in the first place. See Jaffee, 518 U. S., at 12; Fisher v. United States, 425 U. S. 391, 403 (1976). This is true of disclosure before and after the client's death. Without assurance of the privilege's posthumous application, the client may very well not have made disclosures to his attorney at all, so the loss of evidence is more apparent than real. In the case at hand, it seems quite plausible that Foster, perhaps already contemplating suicide, may not have sought legal advice from Hamilton if he had not been assured the conversation was privileged.
3 Petitioners, while opposing wholesale abrogation of the privilege in criminal cases, concede that exceptional circumstances implicating a criminal defendant's constitutional rights might warrant breaching the privilege. We do not, however, need to reach this issue, since such exceptional circumstances clearly are not presented here.
nal and civil cases, and only one commentator ventures such a suggestion, see Mueller & Kirkpatrick, supra, at 380-381. In any event, a client may not know at the time he discloses information to his attorney whether it will later be relevant to a civil or a criminal matter, let alone whether it will be of substantial importance. Balancing ex post the importance of the information against client interests, even limited to criminal cases, introduces substantial uncertainty into the privilege's application. For just that reason, we have rejected use of a balancing test in defining the contours of the privilege. See Upjohn, 449 U. S., at 393; Jaffee, supra, at 17-18.
sistent with the purposes of the privilege, see Glover, 165 U. S., at 407-408; United States v. Zolin, 491 U. S. 554, 562563 (1989), while a posthumous exception in criminal cases appears at odds with the goals of encouraging full and frank communication and of protecting the client's interests. A "no harm in one more exception" rationale could contribute to the general erosion of the privilege, without reference to common-law principles or "reason and experience."
Finally, the Independent Counsel, relying on cases such as United States v. Nixon, 418 U. S. 683, 710 (1974), and Branzburg v. Hayes, 408 U. S. 665 (1972), urges that privileges be strictly construed because they are inconsistent with the paramount judicial goal of truth seeking. But both Nixon and Branzburg dealt with the creation of privileges not recognized by the common law, whereas here we deal with one of the oldest recognized privileges in the law. And we are asked, not simply to "construe" the privilege, but to narrow it, contrary to the weight of the existing body of case law.
It has been generally, if not universally, accepted, for well over a century, that the attorney-client privilege survives the death of the client in a case such as this. While the arguments against the survival of the privilege are by no means frivolous, they are based in large part on speculation-thoughtful speculation, but speculation nonethelessas to whether posthumous termination of the privilege would diminish a client's willingness to confide in an attorney. In an area where empirical information would be useful, it is scant and inconclusive.
vives-if attorneys were required as a matter of practice to testify or provide notes in criminal proceedings, cases discussing that practice would surely exist.
JUSTICE O'CONNOR, with whom JUSTICE SCALIA and JUSTICE THOMAS join, dissenting.
States, 445 U. S. 40, 50 (1980) (internal quotation marks omitted).
The attorney-client privilege promotes trust in the representational relationship, thereby facilitating the provision of legal services and ultimately the administration of justice. See Upjohn Co. v. United States, 449 U. S. 383, 389 (1981). The systemic benefits of the privilege are commonly understood to outweigh the harm caused by excluding critical evidence. A privilege should operate, however, only where "necessary to achieve its purpose," see Fisher v. United States, 425 U. S. 391, 403 (1976), and an invocation of the attorney-client privilege should not go unexamined "when it is shown that the interests of the administration of justice can only be frustrated by [its] exercise," Cohen v. Jenkintown Cab Co., 238 Pa. Super. 456, 464, 357 A. 2d 689, 693694 (1976).
should be permitted to assess whether interests in fairness and accuracy outweigh the justifications for the privilege.
A number of exceptions to the privilege already qualify its protections, and an attorney "who tells his client that the expected communications are absolutely and forever privileged is oversimplifying a bit." 124 F. 3d, at 235. In the situation where the posthumous privilege most frequently arises-a dispute between heirs over the decedent's willthe privilege is widely recognized to give way to the interest in settling the estate. See Glover v. Patten, 165 U. S. 394, 406-408 (1897). This testamentary exception, moreover, may be invoked in some cases where the decedent would not have chosen to waive the privilege. For example, "a decedent might want to provide for an illegitimate child but at the same time much prefer that the relationship go undisclosed." 124 F. 3d, at 234. Among the Court's rationales for a broad construction of the posthumous privilege is its assertion that "[m]any attorneys act as counselors on personal and family matters, where, in the course of obtaining the desired advice, confidences about family members or financial problems must be revealed ... which the client would not wish divulged." Ante, at 407-408. That reasoning, however, would apply in the testamentary context with equal force. Nor are other existing exceptions to the privilege-for example, the crime-fraud exception or the exceptions for claims relating to attorney competence or compensation-necessarily consistent with "encouraging full and frank communication" or "protecting the client's interests." Ante, at 410. Rather, those exceptions reflect the understanding that, in certain circumstances, the privilege " 'ceases to operate'" as a safeguard on "the proper functioning of our adversary system." See United States v. Zolin, 491 U. S. 554, 562-563 (1989).
edges that most cases merely "presume the privilege survives," see ante, at 404, and it relies on the case law's "implicit acceptance" of a continuous privilege, see ante, at 406. Opinions squarely addressing the posthumous force of the privilege "are relatively rare." See 124 F. 3d, at 232. And even in those decisions expressly holding that the privilege continues after the death of the client, courts do not typically engage in detailed reasoning, but rather conclude that the cases construing the testamentary exception imply survival of the privilege. See, e. g., Glover, supra, at 406-408; see also Wright & Graham, supra, § 5498, at 484 ("Those who favor an eternal duration for the privilege seldom do much by way of justifying this in terms of policy").
ment d; see also 2 C. Mueller & L. Kirkpatrick, Federal Evidence, § 199, p. 380 (2d ed. 1994) ("[I]f a deceased client has confessed to criminal acts that are later charged to another, surely the latter's need for evidence sometimes outweighs the interest in preserving the confidences").
Where the exoneration of an innocent criminal defendant or a compelling law enforcement interest is at stake, the harm of precluding critical evidence that is unavailable by any other means outweighs the potential disincentive to forthright communication. In my view, the cost of silence warrants a narrow exception to the rule that the attorneyclient privilege survives the death of the client. Moreover, although I disagree with the Court of Appeals' notion that the context of an initial client interview affects the applicability of the work product doctrine, I do not believe that the doctrine applies where the material concerns a client who is no longer a potential party to adversariallitigation.
Accordingly, I would affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeals. Although the District Court examined the documents in camera, it has not had an opportunity to balance these competing considerations and decide whether the privilege should be trumped in the particular circumstances of this case. Thus, I agree with the Court of Appeals' decision to remand for a determination whether any portion of the notes must be disclosed.

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