Case Name: Steven M. ASHERMAN, Petitioner-Appellee, v. Larry MEACHUM, Commissioner, Connecticut Department of Correction, Respondent-Appellant
Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
Jurisdiction: United States
Decision Date: 1992-02-13
Citations: 957 F.2d 978
Docket Number: No. 002, Docket 90-2530
Parties: Steven M. ASHERMAN, Petitioner-Appellee, v. Larry MEACHUM, Commissioner, Connecticut Department of Correction, Respondent-Appellant.
Judges: Before OAKES, Chief Judge, and LUMBARD, MESKILL, NEWMAN, KEARSE, CARDAMONE, WINTER, PRATT, MINER, ALTIMARI, MAHONEY, WALKER and McLAUGHLIN, Circuit Judges.
Reporter: Federal Reporter 2d Series
Volume: 957
Pages: 978–991

Head Matter:
Steven M. ASHERMAN, Petitioner-Appellee, v. Larry MEACHUM, Commissioner, Connecticut Department of Correction, Respondent-Appellant.
No. 002, Docket 90-2530.
United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.
Argued Sept. 10, 1991.
Decided Feb. 13, 1992.
Stephen J. O’Neill, Asst. Atty. Gen., Hartford, Conn. (Richard Blumenthal, Atty. Gen., Steven R. Strom, Asst. Atty. Gen., on the brief), for respondent-appellant.
William J. Tracy, Jr., Bristol, Conn. (Fu-rey, Donovan, Eddy, Kocsis, Tracy & Daly, on the brief), for petitioner-appellee.
Before OAKES, Chief Judge, and LUMBARD, MESKILL, NEWMAN, KEARSE, CARDAMONE, WINTER, PRATT, MINER, ALTIMARI, MAHONEY, WALKER and McLAUGHLIN, Circuit Judges.

Opinion:
JON 0. NEWMAN, Circuit Judge:
This appeal was reheard in banc to reconsider the issue of whether prison officials violate the Self-Incrimination Clause of the Fifth Amendment by terminating the su pervised home release of a sentenced prisoner upon notification that the prisoner would refuse to answer questions about his crime at a scheduled psychiatric evaluation. The issue arises on an appeal by the Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Correction from a judgment of the District Court for the District of Connecticut (Ellen Bree Burns, Chief Judge) granting the petition of Steven M. Asherman for a writ of habeas corpus. We hold that such action does not violate the Fifth Amendment. We therefore vacate the panel opinion that had affirmed the District Court's judgment and return the appeal to the panel for consideration of any remaining issues.
Facts
Asherman was sentenced in 1980 to a term of seven to fourteen years by the Connecticut Superior Court after his conviction for first-degree manslaughter. His conviction was affirmed on direct review by the Connecticut Supreme Court, State v. Asherman, 193 Conn. 695, 478 A.2d 227 (1984), cert. denied, 470 U.S. 1050, 105 S.Ct. 1749, 84 L.Ed.2d 814 (1985), and a federal habeas corpus challenge to the conviction was rejected by the District Court, Asherman v. Meachum, 739 F.Supp. 718 (D.Conn.), aff'd mem., 923 F.2d 845 (2d Cir.1990).
Asherman began serving his sentence in March 1985. In December 1987, the Connecticut Commissioner of Corrections granted his application for supervised home release (SHR). See Conn.Gen.Stat. 18-100(e) (1990). Asherman was released initially to a halfway house and thereafter resided with his wife in an apartment. On July 19,1988, the Connecticut Parole Board denied Asherman's application for parole. On August 19, 1988, the Commissioner instructed Asherman to. report to the Commissioner's office for a psychiatric evaluation. The Commissioner later testified that he was "concerned about what this [parole] denial may mean in terms of [Asherman's] mind, and his behavior."
On August 22, 1988, Asherman's attorney wrote the Commissioner, stating that Asherman would not "participate in any interrogation which is related to the crime for which he was charged." The federal habeas corpus petition challenging the conviction was then pending in the District Court. When Asherman reported as ordered, he was returned to confinement within the state prison system.
Thereafter, a prison disciplinary board determined that Asherman had violated the terms of his SHR and should be removed from SHR status. The Commissioner subsequently reversed the determination of a disciplinary violation, but confirmed the termination of SHR status. In a written explanation of his reasons, the Commissioner stated:
Your refusal to fully participate in this psychiatric evaluation precludes me from obtaining information necessary to determine whether the . conclusion of the Board of Parole affected you to the point where you no longer are a suitable person for home release status.
The absence of the information referred to . constitutes sufficient ground for determining that you no longer are a suitable person for home release status.
Thereafter a state court habeas corpus challenge to the SHR termination resulted in Asherman's temporary return to SHR status, but that reprieve was ended when the Connecticut Supreme Court rejected the habeas corpus challenge. See Asherman v. Meachum, 213 Conn. 38, 566 A.2d 663 (1989). Asherman then renewed his challenge to the SHR termination by bringing the pending habeas corpus challenge in the District Court. The District Court granted relief on the ground that the termination of Asherman's SHR status had violated his self-incrimination privilege, a panel of this Court affirmed, Asherman v. Meachum, 932 F.2d 137 (2d Cir.1991), and a rehearing in banc was ordered.
Discussion
The issue presented, though important, is rather narrow. It concerns the extent to which state officials may take adverse administrative action in response to a refusal to answer questions under circumstances where the answers might tend to incriminate but are also relevant to the proper exercise of state authority. In resolving that issue, we are willing to make several assumptions for purposes of this case. First, we assume, without deciding, that the answers to the questions Asherman refused to answer created a risk of self-incrimination. In saying that, we are not deciding whether, had Asherman responded to questions about his crime, the State may lawfully use such answers against him in any criminal proceeding. We assume only that Asherman reasonably apprehended a risk of self-incrimination, sufficient to warrant his assertion of the privilege. Second, we assume, without deciding, that Asher-man's challenge to the revocation of SHR status may be challenged in a habeas corpus proceeding, cf. Brennan v. Cunningham, 813 F.2d 1, 4 (1st Cir.1987) (challenge to revocation of work release).. Third, we assume, without deciding, that the adverse state court decision in Asherman's habeas corpus challenge to the termination of his SHR status has no res judicata effect upon his pending federal court habeas challenge.
The Supreme Court has issued a series of decisions that guides our resolution of this appeal. First, the Court has made clear that a person cannot be compelled to be a witness against himself in a criminal proceeding nor forced "to answer official questions put to him in any other proceeding, civil or criminal, formal or informal, where the answers might incriminate him in future criminal proceedings." Lefkowitz v. Turley, 414 U.S. 70, 77, 94 S.Ct. 316, 322, 38 L.Ed.2d 274 (1973). Thus, on the assumptions we have made for purposes of this case, Asherman could not have been ordered to answer questions concerning his crime, by which we mean only that he could not have been subjected to a court order directing him to answer and punished with contempt penalties for refusing to obey such an order. Nor could he have been ordered to waive his self-incrimination privilege. See Gardner v. Broderick, 392 U.S. 273, 279, 88 S.Ct. 1913, 1916-17, 20 L.Ed.2d 1082 (1968).
Second, the Court has ruled that in some circumstances adverse state action may not be taken as a consequence of a person's invocation of the self-incrimination privilege. See Slochower v. Board of Higher Education, 350 U.S. 551, 558-59, 76 S.Ct. 637, 641-42, 100 L.Ed. 692 (1956). Without endeavoring to describe the full range of such circumstances, we may observe that a state may not take adverse action in response to an invocation of the privilege in response to questions not reasonably related to the valid exercise of state authority. Slochower well illustrates the point. A city was prevented from terminating the services of a college teacher in response to the teacher's assertion of his self-incrimination privilege while being questioned by a congressional committee.
Third, the Court has ruled that in some circumstances adverse state action may be taken upon a person's refusal to answer questions pertinent to the exercise of state administrative authority. See Uniformed Sanitation Men Ass'n, Inc. v. Commissioner of Sanitation, 392 U.S. 280, 88 S.Ct. 1917, 20 L.Ed.2d 1089 (1968); Gardner v. Broderick, supra. Since these two decisions are especially pertinent to the pending appeal, we examine them in some detail.
Both decisions concern municipal employees who were questioned about corruption in their agencies. The police officer in Gardner was brought before a grand jury and asked to sign a waiver of the immunity that otherwise might have been conferred under state law had he testified. See N.Y.Penal Law § 2447 (1953), repealed by N.Y.Penal Law § 500.05 (McKinney. 1967). He was discharged from public employment for his refusal to waive immunity. The fifteen, sanitation workers in Uniformed Sanitation Men were brought before a hearing conducted by a commissioner of investigations. They were told that their answers could be used against them in a court of law. 392 U.S. at 283 n. 4, 88 S.Ct. at 1919 n. 4. Three answered the questions and were subsequently brought before a grand jury and asked to sign waivers of immunity. Twelve refused to answer, invoking their privilege against self-incrimination. All fifteen were discharged.
The Supreme Court held all the discharges to be unconstitutional. In both decisions, the Court was careful to distinguish between permissible questioning and impermissible impairment of constitutional rights. In Gardner, the Court said:
[The police officer] was discharged from office, not for failure to answer relevant questions about his official duties, but for refusal to waive a constitutional right.... He was dismissed solely for his refusal to waive the immunity to which he is entitled if he is required to testify despite his constitutional privilege.
392 U.S. at 278, 88 S.Ct. at 1916. In Sanitation Men, the Court said:
"[The sanitation workers] were not discharged merely for refusal to account for their conduct as employees of the city. They were dismissed for invoking and refusing to waive their constitutional right against self-incrimination."
392 U.S. at 283, 88 S.Ct. at 1919. With the three workers who answered, the impairment arose, as with the police officer in Gardner, because the discharge was based on a refusal to waive immunity. With the twelve workers who declined to answer, the impairment arose because they were explicitly told that their answers could be used against them. And the Court concluded that it was clear that the City was not merely seeking an account of their public functions, but was seeking "testimony from their own lips which, despite the constitutional prohibition, could be used to prosecute them criminally." Id. at 284, 88 S.Ct. at 1919-20. However, the Court carefully preserved the authority of public agencies to discharge employees for refusing to answer relevant inquiries:
Petitioners as public employees are entitled, like all other persons, to the benefit of the Constitution, including the privilege against self-incrimination [citing cases]. At the same time, petitioners, being public employees, subject themselves to dismissal if they refuse to account for their 'performance of their public trust, after proper proceedings, which do not involve an attempt to coerce them to relinquish their constitutional rights.
Id. at 284-85, 88 S.Ct. at 1919-20.
The distinction drawn by the Court was critical for the concurring Justices:
I find in these opinions a procedural formula whereby, for example, public officials may now be discharged and lawyers disciplined for refusing to divulge to appropriate authority information pertinent to the faithful performance of their offices.
Id. at 285, 88 S.Ct. at 1920 (Harlan, J., with whom Stewart, J., joins, concurring).
What clearly emerges from these decisions is both a limit and a grant of power with respect to governmental inquiries. Public agencies may not impair the privilege against self-incrimination by compelling incriminating answers, or by requiring a waiver of immunity, or even by asking incriminating questions in conjunction with an explicit threat to use the answers in criminal proceedings. But public agencies retain the authority to ask questions relevant to their public responsibilities and to take adverse action against those whose refusal to answer impedes the discharge of those responsibilities. The fact that a public employee might face the unpleasant choice of surrendering his silence or losing his job, is no bar to an adverse consequence so long as the consequence is imposed for failure to answer a relevant inquiry and not for refusal to give up a constitutional right. The Supreme Court left public employees facing this choice without ruling definitively as to the effect of the choice upon governmental use of any responses the employee elected to give. See Gardner, 392 U.S. at 278-79, 88 S.Ct. at 1916-17; Sanitation Men, id. at 284, 88 S.Ct. at 1919-20.
Applying the teaching of these decisions to Asherman's case, we conclude that the Commissioner was entitled to revoke Asherman's SHR status for his refusal to discuss his crime. The inquiry was rele vant to the Commissioner's public responsibilities. He was entitled to conduct periodic reviews of Asherman's suitability for home release, and he was entitled to assess the impact of parole denial upon Asher-man's mental health. Asherman's attempt to foreclose all questions about his crime prevented the Commissioner from pursuing a relevant inquiry. In pursuing the inquiry, the Commissioner took no action to impair Asherman's self-incrimination privilege. He sought no court order compelling answers, he did not require a waiver of immunity, and he did not insist that Asher-man's answers could be used against him in a criminal proceeding. He stayed well within the authority outlined by Gardner and Sanitation Men by conducting a relevant inquiry and then taking appropriate adverse action, not for Asherman's invocation of his constitutional rights, but for his failure to answer a relevant inquiry. In Justice Harlan's terms, just as public officials may be discharged and lawyers disciplined "for refusing to divulge to appropriate authority information pertinent to the faithful performance of their offices," Sanitation Men, 392 U.S. at 285, 88 S.Ct. at 1920, a prisoner may be terminated from home release status for refusing to divulge to a corrections commissioner information pertinent to the administration of a home release program.
We have no occasion to consider what adverse use might have been made of Ash-erman's answers. See Garrity v. New Jersey, 385 U.S. 493, 87 S.Ct. 616, 17 L.Ed.2d 562 (1967) (testimony given under threat of discharge for not answering may not be used in subsequent prosecution). We decide only that, even assuming he had a privilege to prevent being compelled to answer, his home release status could.be terminated upon his refusal to answer questions about his crime.
Having determined the issue that occasioned the in banc rehearing and having rejected the ground on which the panel rested its affirmance of the District Court's judgment, we face the choice of deciding the remaining issues tendered by the appellee in support of the judgment or returning the appeal to the panel for consideration of the remaining issues. We elect to return the appeal to the panel. In banc reconsideration is a cumbersome procedure that should not be used more extensively than is necessary and useful. Obviously, judicial resources are needlessly used if all thirteen members of this in banc court are obliged to consider issues that can be expeditiously resolved by a panel of three judges. The possibility that the panel's resolution of the remaining issues would precipitate renewed in banc consideration is too remote to be taken seriously. In leaving remaining issues for the panel, we inject no additional layer into the judicial process; we merely permit the normal second layer — a court of appeals panel — to perform its customary role.
On several occasions we have chosen to confine in banc consideration to less than all of the issues in a case by granting rehearing limited to one or more specified issues, see United States v. Chestman, 947 F.2d 551, 554 (2d Cir.1991) (in banc) (in banc granted only on issues concerning Rule 14e-3(a), Rule 10b-5, and mail fraud), petition for cert. filed, (U.S. Jan. 2, 1992) (No. 91-1085); United States v. Indelicato, 865 F.2d 1370, 1385 (2d Cir.) (in banc) (in banc granted only on issue of sufficiency of evidence to establish RICO pattern), cert. denied, 493 U.S. 811, 110 S.Ct. 56, 107 L.Ed.2d 24 (1989), New York v. 11 Cornwell Co., 718 F.2d 22, 24 (2d Cir.1983) (in banc) (in banc granted only, on State's cross-appeal for attorney's fees); Daye v. Attorney General, 696 F.2d 186, 190 (2d Cir.1982) (in banc) (in banc granted only on issue of exhaustion of state remedies); Farrand Optical Co. v. United States, 317 F.2d 875, 885-86 (2d Cir.1962) (in banc) (in banc granted only on issue of district court jurisdiction). Where this occurred and issues remained after the in banc court's consideration of the limited issue, the in banc court left the issues that remained for further consideration by the original panel. See Indelicato, 865 F.2d at 1385; Farrand, 317 F.2d at 886.
The fact that the in banc court is authorized to resolve "[cjases and contro versies," see 28 U.S.C. § 46(c) (1988), or an "appeal," see Fed.R.App. 35(a), does not preclude the court from electing to use less than all of the authority conferred upon it. The same reasoning has evidently persuaded the Supreme Court that it may limit its consideration on certiorari to specific questions despite the statutory grant of jurisdiction to review "[cjases," 28 U.S.C. § 1254(1) (1988 & Supp. I 1989), see, e.g., Brunswick Corp. v. Pueblo Bowl-O-Mat, Inc., 424 U.S. 908, 96 S.Ct. 1101, 47 L.Ed.2d 311 (1976), and has persuaded our Court that it may grant a certificate of probable cause limited to a single issue despite the statutory grant of jurisdiction over an "appeal," 28 U.S.C. § 2253 (1988), see Vicaretti v. Henderson, 645 F.2d 100 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 868, 102 S.Ct. 334, 70 L.Ed.2d 171 (1981). Since the in banc court may elect at the outset to rehear a limited issue in an appeal, it may equally well elect to do so during the course of its in banc consideration of the appeal.
We therefore vacate the panel opinion and return the appeal to the panel for further consideration of any remaining issues and disposition in light of this opinion and the panel's resolution of those issues.