Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/408/41/case.html
Timestamp: 2017-07-28 15:00:58
Document Index: 326110653

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1826', '§ 2510', '§ 2515', '§ 1826', '§ 2515', '§ 1826', '§ 2515', '§ 2515', '§ 2511', '§ 2515', '§ 2515', '§ 801', '§ 2515', '§ 2515', '§ 2515', '§ 2515', '§ 2515', '§ 2511', '§ 2520', '§ 2515', '§ 2515', '§ 2515', '§ 3504', '§ 2515', '§ 3504', '§ 3504', '§ 3504', '§ 3504', '§ 2515', '§ 3504', '§ 2515', '§ 2515', '§ 2518', '§ 2515', '§ 1826', '§ 2518', '§ 2518', '§ 2515', '§ 2518', '§ 2515', '§ 2515', '§ 2518', '§ 2515', '§ 2518', '§ 1826', '§ 2515', '§ 1826', '§ 401', '§ 1826', '§ 401', '§ 1826', '§ 2515', '§ 2511', '§ 2518', '§ 2518', '§ 2515', '§ 2518', '§ 2518', '§ 79', '§ 78', '§ 35', '§ 2155', '§ 409', '§ 1124', '§ 7604', '§ 825', '§ 717', '§ 51', '§ 2518', '§ 2515', '§ 2515']

Gelbard v. United States (full text) :: 408 U.S. 41 (1972) :: Justia US Supreme Court Center Log In
U.S. Supreme CourtGelbard v. United States, 408 U.S. 41 (1972)Gelbard v. United StatesNo. 71-110Argued March 27, 1972Decided June 26, 1972*408 U.S. 41CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
These cases present challenges to the validity of adjudications of civil contempt, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1826(a), [Footnote 1] of witnesses before federal grand juries Page 408 U. S. 43 who refused to comply with court orders to testify. The refusals were defended upon the ground that interrogation was to be based upon information obtained from the witnesses' communications, allegedly intercepted by federal agents by means of illegal wiretapping and electronic surveillance. A provision of Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, 82 Stat. 211, as amended, 18 U.S.C. §§ 2510-2520, directs that,
18 U.S.C. § 2515. [Footnote 2] The question presented is whether grand jury witnesses, in proceedings under 28 U.S.C. § 1826(a), are entitled to invoke this prohibition of § 2515 as a defense to contempt charges brought against them for refusing to testify. In No. 71-110, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that they are not entitled to do so. United States v. Gelbard, 443 F.2d 837 (1971). In No. 71-263, the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, en banc, reached the contrary conclusion. In re Grand Jury Proceedings, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (Egan), 450 Page 408 U. S. 44 F.2d 199 (1971); In re Grand Jury Proceedings, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (Walsh), 450 F.2d 231 (1971). We granted certiorari. 404 U.S. 990 (197). [Footnote 3] We disagree with the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and agree with the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
No. 71-110. A federal district Judge approved wiretaps by federal agents of the telephones of Perry Paul, an alleged bookmaker, and Jerome Zarowitz, a former executive of a Las Vegas casino. In the course of those taps, the agents overheard conversations between Paul and petitioner Gelbard and between Zarowitz and petitioner Parnas. Petitioners were subsequently called before a federal grand jury convened in Los Angeles to investigate possible violations of federal gambling laws. The Government asserted that petitioners would be questioned about third parties and that the questions would be based upon petitioners' intercepted telephone conversations. Petitioners appeared before the grand jury, but declined to answer any questions based upon their intercepted conversations until they were afforded an opportunity to challenge the legality of the interceptions. Following a hearing, the United States District Court for the Central District of California found petitioners in contempt and, pursuant to 28 Page 408 U. S. 45 U.S.C. § 1826(a), committed them to custody for the life of the grand jury or until they answered the questions.
Section 1826(a) expressly limits the adjudication of civil contempt to the case of a grand jury witness who "refuses without just cause shown to comply with an order of the court to testify." Our inquiry, then, is whether a showing that interrogation would be based upon the illegal interception of the witness' communications constitutes a showing of "just cause" that precludes a finding of contempt. The answer turns on the construction of Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control Act. [Footnote 5] Page 408 U. S. 46
The witnesses in these cases were held in contempt for disobeying court orders by refusing to produce evidence their testimony -- before grand juries. Consequently, their primary contention is that § 2515, the evidentiary prohibition of Title III, afforded them a defense to the contempt charges. In addressing that contention, we must assume, in the present posture of Page 408 U. S. 47 these cases, that the Government has intercepted communications of the witnesses and that the testimony the Government seeks from them would be, within the meaning of § 2515, "evidence derived" from the intercepted communications. We must also assume that the communications were not intercepted in accordance with the specified procedures, and thus that the witnesses' potential testimony would be "disclosure" in violation of Title III. See 18 U.S.C. §§ 2511(1), 2517(3). In short, we proceed on the premise that § 2515 prohibits the presentation to grand juries of the compelled testimony of these witnesses.
"To safeguard the privacy of innocent persons, the interception of wire or oral communications where none of the parties to the communication has consented to the interception should be allowed only when authorized by a court of competent jurisdiction, and should remain under the control and supervision of the authorizing court. Interception of wire and oral communications should further be limited to certain major types of offenses and specific categories of crime with assurances that the interception is justified and that the information Page 408 U. S. 48 obtained thereby will not be misused."
S.Rep. No. 1097, 90th Cong., 2d Sess., 66 (1968). Hence, although Title III authorizes invasions of individual privacy under certain circumstances, the protection of privacy was an overriding congressional concern. [Footnote 7] Indeed, the congressional findings articulate Page 408 U. S. 49 clearly the intent to utilize the evidentiary prohibition of § 2515 to enforce the limitations imposed by Title III upon wiretapping and electronic surveillance:
§ 801(b), 82 Stat. 211 (emphasis added). [Footnote 8] And the Senate report, like the congressional findings, specifically addressed itself to the enforcement, by means Page 408 U. S. 50 of § 2515, of the limitations upon invasions of individual privacy:
Section 2515 is thus central to the legislative scheme. Its importance as a protection for "the victim of an unlawful invasion of privacy" could not be more clear. [Footnote 9] Page 408 U. S. 51 The purposes of § 2515 and Title III as a whole would be subverted were the plain command of § 2515 ignored when the victim of an illegal interception is called as a witness before a grand jury and asked questions based upon that interception. Moreover, § 2515 serves not only to protect the privacy of communications, [Footnote 10] but also to ensure that the courts do not become partners to illegal conduct: the evidentiary prohibition was enacted also "to protect the integrity of court and administrative proceedings." Consequently, to order a grand jury witness, on pain of imprisonment, to disclose evidence that 2515 bars in unequivocal terms is both to thwart the congressional objective of protecting individual privacy by excluding such evidence and to entangle the courts in the illegal acts of Government agents.
In sum, Congress simply cannot be understood to have sanctioned orders to produce evidence excluded from grand jury proceedings by § 2515. Contrary to the Government's assertion that the invasion of privacy is over Page 408 U. S. 52 and done with, to compel the testimony of these witnesses compounds the statutorily proscribed invasion of their privacy by adding to the injury of the interception the insult of compelled disclosure. And, of course, Title III makes illegal not only unauthorized interceptions, but also the disclosure and use of information obtained through such interceptions. 18 U.S.C. § 2511(1); see 18 U.S.C. § 2520. Hence, if the prohibition of § 2515 is not available as a defense to the contempt charge, disclosure through compelled testimony makes the witness the victim, once again, of a federal crime. Finally, recognition of § 2515 as a defense
In re Grand Jury Proceedings, Harrisburg Pennsylvania (Egan), 450 F.2d at 220 (Rosenn, J., concurring).
Our conclusion that § 2515 is an available defense to the contempt charge finds additional support in 18 U.S.C. § 3504, enacted as part of the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970, 84 Stat. 935. Section 3504 is explicit confirmation that Congress intended that grand jury witnesses, in reliance upon the prohibition of § 2515, might refuse to answer questions based upon the illegal interception of their communications. Page 408 U. S. 53
Under § 3504(a)(2), disclosure of information relating to the claim of inadmissibility is not mandatory if the "unlawful act" took place before June 19, 1968, the effective date of Title III. Under § 3504(a)(3), there is a five-year limitation upon the consideration of a claim of inadmissibility based upon "the exploitation of an unlawful act" that took place before June 19, 1968. Section 3504(b), by reference to Title III, defines an "unlawful act" as one involving illegal wiretapping or electronic surveillance. [Footnote 11] Page 408 U. S. 54
S.Rep. No. 91-617, p. 154 (1969). [Footnote 12] In the application of § 3504 to "any . . . proceeding in or before any . . . grand jury," "a party aggrieved" can only be a witness, for there is no other "party" to a grand jury proceeding. Moreover, a "claim . . . that evidence is inadmissible" can only be a claim that the witness' potential testimony is inadmissible. Hence, § 3504, by contemplating "a claim by a party aggrieved that evidence is inadmissible because" of an illegal interception, necessarily recognizes that grand jury witnesses may rely upon the prohibition of § 2515 in claiming that the evidence sought from them is inadmissible in the grand jury proceedings. Upon such a claim by a grand jury witness, the Government, as "the opponent of the claim," is required under § 3504(a)(1) to Page 408 U. S. 55 "affirm or deny the occurrence of the alleged" illegal interception. Section 3504 thus confirms that Congress meant that grand jury witnesses might defend contempt charges by invoking the prohibition of § 2515 against the compelled disclosure of evidence obtained in violation of Title III.
The omission of the June 19, 1968, date from subsection (a)(1) was not inadvertent. Subsection (a)(1) was not in the original Senate bill, although the bill did contain counterparts of present subsections (a)(2) and (a)(3) without the Jun 19, 1968, or any other date limitation. [Footnote 14] See Hearings before the Subcommittee on Criminal Laws and Procedures of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary on S. 30 et al., 91st Cong., 1st Sess., 102-105 Page 408 U. S. 56 (1969). Subsection (a)(1) was added at the suggestion of the Department of Justice. At that time, the Department followed the practice of searching Government files for information about wiretaps and eavesdropping. The Department advised the Senate Judiciary Committee that, while it had been
Hearings before Subcommittee No. 5 of the House Committee on the Judiciary on S. 30 et al., 91st Cong., 2d Sess., 84, 104 (1970). Other witnesses thought the provision unnecessary. [Footnote 15] Indeed, one organization submitted Page 408 U. S. 57 a report that disapproved subsection (a)(1) on the ground that the Government should admit illegalities without a prior claim. Id. at 62 (Section of Criminal Law of the American Bar Association). It is also significant that congressional questioning of a representative of the Department of Justice at the hearings was directed to the Department's views on the insertion of a date limitation only in subsections (a)(2) and (a)(3). Id. at 659; see the Department's written response, id. at 675-676.
"Paragraph (1) provides that, upon a claim by an aggrieved party that evidence is inadmissible because it is the primary product of an unlawful act, or because it was obtained by the exploitation of an unlawful act, the opponent of the claim must affirm or deny the occurrence of the alleged unlawful act. Under this provision, upon a charge by the defendant with standing to challenge the alleged unlawful conduct, the Government would be required to affirm or deny that an unlawful act Page 408 U. S. 58 involving electronic surveillance had in fact, occurred. If such an unlawful act had in fact, occurred, paragraph (2), below, will govern disclosure of the contents of the electronic surveillance records or transcripts to the defendant and his counsel, unless paragraph (3) applies."
H.R.Rep. No. 91-1549, p. 51 (1970). This explanation demonstrates that "the opponent of the claim" [Footnote 16] has a duty to "affirm or deny" whenever "a party aggrieved" "claim[s] . . . that evidence is inadmissible because it is" derived from an illegal interception. The date June 19, 1968, becomes relevant only after it is determined that an illegal interception took place and an issue thus arises as to disclosure of information bearing on the claim. [Footnote 17] Page 408 U. S. 59
The Government argues, finally, that, while § 2515 could be construed to allow a grand jury witness to invoke its prohibition as a defense to a contempt charge, "[i]f this section were the only relevant portion of [Title III]," Brief for the United States in No. 71-263, p. 19, proceedings before grand juries are omitted from another provision of Title III, § 2518(10)(a), that authorizes "[a]ny aggrieved person," [Footnote 18] in specified types of proceedings, to "move to suppress the contents of any intercepted wire or oral communication, or evidence derived therefrom." [Footnote 19] But it does not follow from the asserted omission of grand jury proceedings from the suppression provision that grand jury witnesses cannot invoke § 2515 as a defense in a contempt proceeding under 28 U.S.C. § 1826(a). [Footnote 20] The congressional concern with the applicability Page 408 U. S. 60 of § 2518(10)(a) in grand jury proceedings, so far as it is discernible from the Senate report, was apparently that defendants and potential defendants might be able to utilize suppression motions to impede the issuance of indictments:
Furthermore, grand jury witnesses do not normally discover whether they may refuse to answer questions by filing motions to suppress their potential testimony. The usual procedure is, upon the Government's motion, to have a court order a grand jury witness to testify upon penalty of contempt for noncompliance. Section 1826(a) embodies that traditional procedure. The asserted omission of grand jury proceedings from § 2518(10)(a) Page 408 U. S. 61 may well reflect congressional acceptance of that procedure as adequate in these cases. Consequently, we cannot suppose that Congress, by providing procedures for suppression motions, intended to deprive grand jury witnesses of the § 2515 defense that would otherwise be available to them. Although the Government points to statements in the Senate report to the effect that § 2518(10)(a) "limits" § 2515, we read those statements to mean that suppression motions, as a method of enforcing the prohibition of § 2515, must be made in accordance with the restrictions upon forums, procedures, and grounds specified in § 2518(10)(a). [Footnote 21]
It is so ordered. Page 408 U. S. 62
The Court of Appeals vacated the judgments of contempt and remanded for hearings to determine whether the questions asked respondents resulted from the illegal interception of their communications. 450 F.2d at 217. Although, in this Court, the Government now denies that there was any overhearing, in view of our affirmance that is a matter for the District Court to consider in the first instance.
In that case, after federal agents unlawfully seized papers belonging to the Silverthornes and to their lumber company, the documents were returned upon order of the court. In the interim, however, the agents had copied them. After returning the seized originals, the prosecutor attempted to regain possession of them by issuing a grand jury subpoena duces tecum. When the petitioners refused to comply with the subpoena, they Page 408 U. S. 63 were convicted of contempt. In reversing those judgments, this Court, through Mr. Justice Holmes, held that the Government was barred from reaping any fruit from its forbidden act, and wove into our constitutional fabric the celebrated maxim that
The Solicitor General does not propose that Silverthorne be overruled. Nor does he deny its remarkable similarity. Indeed, his analysis of the constitutional issue at stake here fails even to mention that landmark decision. [Footnote 2/1] Page 408 U. S. 64 And none of the precedents cited by him detract from Silverthorne's vitality. [Footnote 2/2]
Rather, the Government treats this decision as a "novel Page 408 U. S. 65 extension" of Fourth Amendment protections, leaning heavily upon the observation that the exclusionary rule has never been extended to "provide that illegally seized evidence is inadmissible against anyone for any purpose." Alderman, supra, at 394 U. S. 175. This aphorism is contravened, concludes the Solicitor General, by any result permitting a nondefendant to "suppress" evidence sought to be introduced at another's trial or to withhold testimony from a grand jury investigation of someone else.
The fact that the movants below sought to withhold evidence does not transform these cases into unusual ones. A witness is often permitted to retain exclusive custody of information where a contrary course would jeopardize important liberties such as First Amendment guarantees, Watkins v. United States, 354 U. S. 178; NAACP v. Alabama, 357 U. S. 449, 357 U. S. 463; Gibson v. Florida Legislative Investigation Committee, 372 U. S. 539; Baird v. State Bar of Arizona, 401 U. S. 1, 401 U. S. 6-7; In re Stolar, 401 Page 408 U. S. 66 U.S. 23; Fifth Amendment privileges, Holman v. United States, 341 U. S. 479, or traditional testimonial privileges. [Footnote 2/3]
United States v. United States District Court, 407 U. S. 297, 407 U. S. 318-319, the normal exclusionary threat of Weeks v. United States, 232 U. S. 383, would be sharply attenuated, and intelligence centers would be loosed from virtually every deterrent against abuse. [Footnote 2/4] Furthermore, even Page 408 U. S. 67 where the "uninvited ear" is used to obtain criminal convictions, rather than for domestic spying, a rule different from our result today would supply police with an added incentive to record the conversations of suspected coconspirators in order to marshal evidence against alleged ringleaders. We are told that
Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U. S. 643, 367 U. S. 659. For this reason, our decisions have embraced Page 408 U. S. 68 the view that
Sherman v. United States, 356 U. S. 369, 356 U. S. 380 (concurring in result); see also his opinion for the Court in Nardone v. United States, 308 U. S. 338, 308 U. S. 340-341. In a Self-Incrimination Page 408 U. S. 69 Clause decision, MR. JUSTICE BRENNAN (joined by MR. JUSTICE MARSHALL and myself) used fewer words: "it is monstrous that courts should aid or abet the lawbreaking police officer." Harris v. New York, 401 U. S. 222, 401 U. S. 232 (dissenting opinion).
Under 28 U.S.C. 1826(a), a witness who refuses to testify "without just cause" may be held in contempt of court. Here, grand jury witnesses are involved, and the just cause claimed to excuse them is that the testimony demanded involves the disclosure and use of communications Page 408 U. S. 70 allegedly intercepted in violation of the controlling federal statute and hence inadmissible under 18 U.S.C. § 2515.
Where the Government produces a court order for the interception, however, and the witness nevertheless demands a full-blown suppression hearing to determine the legality of the order, there may be room for striking a different accommodation between the due functioning of the grand jury system and the federal wiretap statute. Suppression hearings in these circumstances would result in protracted interruption of grand jury proceedings. At the same time, prosecutors and other officers who have been granted and relied on a court order for the interception would be subject to no liability under the statute, whether the order is valid or not; and, in any event, the deterrent value of excluding the evidence will be marginal, at best. It is well, therefore, that the Court has left this issue open for consideration by the District Court on remand. See ante at 408 U. S. 61 n. 22. Page 408 U. S. 71
Nor is it accurate to "assume," as the Court does, that the Government's overhearing of these witnesses was in violation of the applicable statute. Petitioner Gelbard contended in the trial court that the United States planned to use his electronically overheard conversations as one basis for questioning him before the grand jury, and so stated in a presentation to that court. The Government, in a reply affidavit, stated that whatever information had been gathered as a result of electronic overhearing had been obtained from wiretaps conducted Page 408 U. S. 72 pursuant to court order as provided in 18 U.S.C. § 2518. [Footnote 3/1] Parnas, so far as this record shows, made no similar allegation in the trial court. The Court of Appeals, in its opinion, described the position taken by these witnesses in the following language:
Thus, what was presented to the trial court in this proceeding under 18 U.S.C. § 1826(a) was not a neatly stipulated question of law, but a demand by the petitioners that they be permitted to roam at will among the prosecutor's records in order to see whether they might be able to turn up any evidence indicating that the Government's overhearing of their conversations had been unauthorized by statute. In order to determine whether this particular type of remedy is open to these petitioners at this particular stage of potential criminal proceedings, it is not enough to recite, as the Court does, that 18 U.S.C. § 2515 prohibits the use of illegally overheard wire communications before grand juries, as well as before other governmental bodies. This Page 408 U. S. 73 proposition is not disputed. The far more difficult inquiry posed by these facts is whether the granting to these petitioners, at this particular stage of these proceedings, of sweeping discovery as a prelude to a full hearing on the issue of alleged unlawful surveillance can fairly be inferred from the enactment by Congress of the two statutes relied on in the Court's opinion.
It may be helpful at the outset to treat briefly the background of 28 U.S.C. § 1826(a). As the Court notes, this provision was enacted as a part of the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970, and the Senate Report states that it was intended to codify the "present practice" of the federal courts. S.Rep. No. 91-617, p. 148 (1969). The existing practice of the federal courts prior to the enactment of this section was based on Fed.Rule Crim.Proc. 42 and on 18 U.S.C. § 401, both of which dealt generally with the power of courts to punish for contempt. The enactment of § 1826(a) appears to have resulted from a desire on the part of Congress to treat separately from the general contempt power of courts their authority to deal with recalcitrant witnesses in court or grand jury proceedings. Since, as the Senate Report states, the enactment of this provision was designed to "codify present practice," it is instructive to note the types of claims litigated in connection with grand jury matters under Rule 42 and 18 U.S.C. § 401 prior to the enactment of this new section. So far as the reported decisions of this Court and of the lower federal courts reveal, prior litigation with respect to grand juries has dealt almost exclusively with questions of privilege, and most of these cases have dealt with issues of the privilege against self-incrimination. While it is plain that the respondent in such proceedings was entitled to a hearing and to adduce evidence, it is equally plain that the Page 408 U. S. 74 typical hearing was short in duration and largely devoted to the arguments of counsel on an agreed statement of facts. [Footnote 3/2]
Congress was, of course, free to expand the scope of inquiry in these proceedings, to enlarge the issues to Page 408 U. S. 75 be tried, and to alter past practice in any other way that it chose consistently with the Constitution. But in view of the stated congressional interest to "codify present practice" by the enactment of § 1826(a), we should require rather strong evidence of congressional purpose to conclude that Congress intended to engraft on the traditional and rather summary contempt hearings a new type of hearing in which a grand jury witness is accorded carte blanche discovery of all of the Government's "applications, orders, tapes, and transcripts relating to such electronic surveillance" before he may be required to testify. 443 F.2d at 838.
"It is a grand inquest, a body with powers of investigation and inquisition, the scope of whose inquiries is not to be limited narrowly by questions of propriety or forecasts of the probable result of Page 408 U. S. 76 the investigation, or by doubts whether any particular individual will be found properly subject to an accusation of crime. As has been said before, the identity of the offender, and the precise nature of the offense, if there be one, normally are developed at the conclusion of the grand jury's labors, not at the beginning. . . ."
"If indictments were to be held open to challenge on the ground that there was inadequate or incompetent evidence before the grand jury, the resulting delay would be great indeed. The result of such a rule would be that, before trial on the merits, a defendant could always insist on the kind of preliminary trial to determine the competency and Page 408 U. S. 77 adequacy of the evidence before the grand jury."
It seems to me to be clear beyond cavil from these cases that, prior to the enactment of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, a hearing such as Page 408 U. S. 78 that which the Court awards these petitioners was not only unauthorized by law, but completely contrary to the ingrained principles which have long governed the functioning of the grand jury.
"Any aggrieved person in any trial, hearing, or proceeding in or before any court, department, officer, agency, regulatory body, or other authority of the United States, a State, or a political subdivision thereof, may move to suppress the contents of any Page 408 U. S. 79 intercepted wire or oral communication, or evidence derived therefrom, on the grounds that --"
A construction which I believe at least equally plausible, based simply on the juxtaposition of the various sections of the statute, is that § 2515 contains a basic proscription of certain conduct, but does not attempt to specify remedies or rights arising from a breach of that proscription; the specification of remedies is left Page 408 U. S. 80 to other sections. Other sections provide several remedies; criminal and civil sanctions are imposed by §§ 2511 and 2520, whereas § 2518(10)(a) accords a right to a suppression hearing in specified cases. Thus, the fact that one who may be the victim of alleged unlawful surveillance on the part of the Government is not accorded an Alderman-type suppression hearing (Alderman v. United States, 394 U. S. 165 (1969)) under the provisions of § 2518(10)(a) is not left remediless to such a degree that it must be presumed to have been an oversight; he is remitted to the institution of civil proceedings, or the filing of a complaint leading to the institution of a criminal prosecution. While the latter two remedies may not be as efficacious in many situations as a suppression hearing, the remission of an aggrieved party to those remedies certainly does not render nugatory the general proscription contained in § 2515.
The omission of "grand jury" from the designated forums in § 2518(10)(a) is not explainable on the basis that, though the testimony is sought to be adduced before a grand jury, the motion to suppress would actually be made in a court, which is one of the forums designated in § 2518(10)(a). The language "in any trial, hearing, or proceeding in or before" quite clearly refers to the forum in which the testimony is sought to be adduced. But even more significant is the inclusion among the designated forums of "department," "officer," "agency," and "regulatory body." Congress has almost without exception provided that issues as to the legality and propriety of subpoenas issued by either agencies or executive departments should be resolved by the courts. It has accomplished this result by requiring the agency to bring an independent judicial action to enforce obedience to its subpoena. See, e.g., 15 U.S.C. § 79r, Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935; 15 U.S.C. § 78u, Securities Exchange Act of 1934; 41 U.S.C. §§ 35-45, Walsh-Healey Page 408 U. S. 81 Act; 50 U.S.C.App. § 2155, Defense Production Act of 1950; 47 U.S.C. §§ 409(f) and (g), Communications Act of 1934; 46 U.S.C. § 1124, Merchant Marine Act, 1936; 26 U.S.C. § 7604, Internal Revenue Code of 1954; 16 U.S.C. § 825f(c), Electric Utility Companies Act; 15 U.S.C. § 717m(d), Natural Gas Act; 7 U.S.C. § 51m, Tobacco Inspection Act. This general mode of enforcement of agency investigative subpoenas was discussed in the context of the Fair Labor Standards Act in Oklahoma Press Publishing Co. v. Walling, 327 U. S. 186 (1946).
In the light of these conflicting implications from the statutory language itself, resort to the legislative history is appropriate. Passages from the legislative history cited by the Court in its opinion do not focus at all on the availability of a suppression hearing in grand jury proceedings; they simply speak in general terms of the congressional intent to prohibit and penalize unlawful electronic surveillance, of which intent there can, of course, be no doubt. But several parts of the legislative history address themselves, far more particularly than any relied upon by the Court in its opinion, to the actual issue before us. The Senate Report, for example, Page 408 U. S. 82 indicates as plainly as possible that the exclusion of grand juries from the language of § 2518(10)(a) was deliberate:
There is an intimation in the opinion of the Court that the reason this language was used may have been that grand juries do not pass upon motions to suppress, while courts do. This intimation is not only inconsistent with the language of the section itself, as pointed out supra at 408 U. S. 80, but it attributes to the drafters of the report a lower level of understanding of the subject matter with which they were dealing than I believe is justified. It is also rather squarely contradicted by the statement that there is no limitation on the character of evidence that may be presented to a grand jury "which is enforceable by an individual." Had the report meant to stress the presumably well known fact that grand juries do not themselves grant motions to suppress, it would not have Page 408 U. S. 83 used that language, nor would it have cited United States v. Blue, 384 U. S. 251 (1966).
"The provision must, of course, be read in light of section 2518(10)(a), discussed below, which defines the class entitled to make a motion to suppress. It largely reflects existing law. . . . Nor generally [is there any intention] to press the scope of the suppression rule beyond present search and seizure law. See Walder v. United States, 347 U. S. 62 (1954). . . . The provision thus forms an integral part of the system of limitations designed to protect privacy. Along with the criminal and Page 408 U. S. 84 civil remedies, it should serve to guarantee that the standards of the new chapter will sharply curtail the unlawful interception of wire and oral communications."
If § 2515 of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 stood alone, without any informative legislative history, the Court's conclusion with respect to the rights of these petitioners would be plainly correct. If the conflicting implications from two sections of the same statute were present in a regulatory scheme which was to stand by itself, rather than to be superimposed on procedures such as contempt hearings and Page 408 U. S. 85 institutions such as the grand jury, the Court's conclusion would at least be tenable. But when the Court concludes that Congress, almost in a fit of absentmindedness, has drastically enlarged the right of potential grand jury witnesses to avoid testifying, and when such a conclusion is based upon one of two ambiguous implications from the language of the statute, and is contrary to virtually every whit of legislative history addressed to the point in issue, I think its conclusion is plainly wrong.
"confirms that Page 408 U. S. 86 Congress meant that grand jury witnesses might defend contempt charges by invoking the prohibition of § 2515 against the compelled disclosure of evidence obtained in violation of Title III."
"This section contains a special finding relating, as do the following sections of the title, to certain evidentiary problems created by electronic surveillance conducted by the Government prior to the enactment of Public Law 91 on June 19, 1968, which provided statutory authority for obtaining surveillance warrants in certain types of criminal Page 408 U. S. 87 investigations."
"Lastly, it should be noted that nothing in section 3504(a)(1) is intended to codify or change present law defining illegal conduct or prescribing requirements for standing to object to such conduct or to use of evidence given under an immunity grant. See, e.g., Giordano v. United States, 394 U. S. 310 (1969); Alderman v. United States, 394 U. S. 165 (1969). Nevertheless, since it requires a pending claim as a predicate to disclosure, it sets aside the present wasteful practice of the Department of Justice in searching files without a motion from a defendant. . . . "Page 408 U. S. 88
"Mr. Chairman, title VII of the Organized Crime Control Act is designed to regulate motions to suppress evidence in certain limited situations where Page 408 U. S. 89 the motion is based upon unlawful electronic eavesdropping or wiretapping which occurred prior to the enactment of the Federal electronic surveillance laws on June 19, 1968. . . ."
"As I lave indicated, the title applies only to disclosures where the electronic surveillance occurred prior to June 19, 1968. It is not necessary that it apply to disclosure where an electronic surveillance occurred after that date, because such disclosure will be mandated not by Alderman, but by section 18 of title 18, United States Code, added by title III of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968. Section 2518(10)[(a)] provides a specific procedure for motions to suppress the contents of any intercepted wire or oral communication, or evidence derived therefrom, on the grounds that the communication was unlawfully intercepted, that the authorization for the interception was insufficient, or that the interception was not made in conformity with the authorization obtained. It provides, insofar as the disclosure of intercepted communications is concerned, that, upon the filing of a motion to suppress by an aggrieved person, the trial judge may, in his discretion, make available to such person and his counsel for inspection Page 408 U. S. 90 such portions of an intercepted communication, or evidence derived therefrom, as the judge determines to be in the interest of justice, see Senate Report No. 1097, 90th Congress,2d Session 10, 1968. The provisions of this title will, therefore control the disclosure of transcripts of electronic surveillances conducted prior to June 19, 1968. Thereafter, existing statutory law, not Alderman, will control. Consequently, in view of these amendments to title VII, its enactment, in conjunction with the provisions of title III of the 1968 act, provides the Federal Government with a comprehensive an integrated set of procedural rules governing suppression litigation concerning electronic surveillance."
Section 3504(a)(1) by its terms, even if read totally out of its context and background, as the Court seeks to do, affords these petitioners no help, because the Government has complied with its requirements in these cases. But, more importantly, the entire thrust of the findings actually adopted by Congress, and of the reports of both Houses, makes it as plain as humanly possible that this section was intended as a limitation on existing rights of criminal defendants, not as an enlargement of them. Congress, displeased with the effect of this Court's decision in Alderman, supra, desired to put a statute of limitations type cut-off beyond which the Government would not be required to go in time in order to disprove taint. Equally displeased with the policy adopted by the Government of searching its files for evidence of taint even when none had been alleged Page 408 U. S. 91 by the defendant, it sought to put a stop to that practice by requiring the Government to "affirm or deny" only where there is "a claim by a party aggrieved that evidence is inadmissible." Understanding of this background not only affords a complete explanation of the language used by Congress in this section, but illustrates the palpable error into which the Court has fallen in construing it. The Court has, at least figuratively, stood on its head both the language and the legislative history of this section in order to conclude that it was intended to expand the rights of criminal defendants.