Opinion ID: 3031870
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Structural Role of the Grand Jury

Text: The grand jury belongs to no branch of government, but is a “constitutional fixture in its own right.” Williams, 504 U.S. at 47. Although no branch may control the grand jury, each branch enjoys some power to direct or check the grand jury’s actions. “[T]radition and the dynamics of the constitutional scheme of separation of powers define a limited function for both court and prosecutor in their dealings with the grand jury.” United States v. Chanen, 549 F.2d 1306, 1312 (9th Cir. 1977). The Fifth Amendment’s guarantee to indictment by a grand jury “presupposes an investigative body ‘acting independently of either prosecuting attorney or judge’ whose mis- sion is to clear the innocent, no less than to bring to trial those UNITED STATES v. NAVARRO-VARGAS 5539 who may be guilty.” Dionisio, 410 U.S. at 16-17 (footnote omitted) (quoting Stirone, 361 U.S. at 218). Thus, the grand jury has been accorded wide latitude to inquire into violations of criminal law. No judge pre- sides to monitor its proceedings. It deliberates in secret and may determine alone the course of its inquiry. The grand jury may compel the production of evidence or the testimony of witnesses as it considers appropriate, and its operation generally is unrestrained by the technical procedural and evidentiary rules governing the conduct of criminal trials. Calandra, 414 U.S. at 343. The grand jury does not belong to the judicial branch, but it is “subject to the supervision of a judge” in some respects. Branzburg, 408 U.S. at 688. The court summons the grand jury and ensures that it is properly constituted. FED. R. CRIM. P. (6)(a)(1). The district court may extend the grand jury’s service or discharge it. Id. 6(g). The grand jury may subpoena testimony, but it depends on the judiciary for enforcement, and the court may decline enforcement and quash the subpoena. Calandra, 414 U.S. at 346 n.4. The grand jury may be “clothed with great independence in many areas, but it remains an appendage of the court, powerless to perform its investigative functions without the court’s aid, because powerless itself to compel the testimony of witnesses.” Brown v. United States, 359 U.S. 41, 49 (1959), overruled in part by Harris v. United States, 382 U.S. 162 (1965). On the other hand, the grand jury, while not within the executive branch, shares investigative duties with federal prosecutors. See Butz v. Economou, 438 U.S. 478, 510 (1978) (“[T]he public prosecutor, in deciding whether a particular prosecution shall be instituted or followed up, performs much the same function as a grand jury.”) (interior quotations and citations omitted). Indeed, in some respects, the grand jury 5540 UNITED STATES v. NAVARRO-VARGAS has even broader latitude than prosecutors. Grand jurors “may act on tips, rumors, evidence offered by the prosecutor, or their own personal knowledge” in making its decisions. Dionisio, 410 U.S. at 15. The privilege of acting on “their own personal knowledge” is, of course, a vestige of the earliest grand juries, which were expected to bring their own charges, and it is reflected in the Fifth Amendment’s reference to “presentment.” Grand juries and prosecutors serve as a check on one another. The grand jury, acting on its own information, may return a presentment, may request that the prosecutor prepare an indictment, or may review an indictment submitted by the prosecutor. The prosecutor has no obligation to prosecute the presentment, to sign the return of an indictment, or even to prosecute an indictment properly returned. See United States v. Batchelder, 442 U.S. 114, 124 (1979) (“[W]hether to prosecute and what charge to file or bring before a grand jury are decisions that generally rest in the prosecutor’s discretion.”); Bordenkircher v. Hayes, 434 U.S. 357, 364 (1978) (assuming probable cause exists, the decision of whether and what to charge “rests entirely in [the prosecutor’s] discretion”); United States v. Nixon, 418 U.S. 683, 693 (1974) (“Executive Branch has exclusive and absolute discretion to decide whether to prosecute a case”); Confiscation Cases, 74 U.S. (7 Wall.) 454, 457 (1869) (“Public prosecutions, until they come before the court to which they are returnable, are within the exclusive discretion of the district attorney”); Cox, 342 F.2d at 182 (Brown, J., concurring); id. at 193 (Wisdom, J., concurring). Similarly, the grand jury has no obligation to prepare a presentment or to return an indictment drafted by the prosecutor. The grand jury thus determines not only whether probable cause exists, but also whether to “charge a greater offense or a lesser offense; numerous counts or a single count; and perhaps most significant of all, a capital offense or a noncapital offense — all on the basis of the same facts.” Vasquez v. Hillery, 474 U.S. 254, 263 (1986). And, significantly, the grand jury may refuse to return an indictment even “where a UNITED STATES v. NAVARRO-VARGAS 5541 conviction can be obtained.” Id. (citing United States v. Ciambrone, 601 F.2d 616, 629 (2d Cir. 1979) (Friendly, J., dissenting)). The grand jury’s discretion — its independence — lies in two important characteristics: the absolute secrecy surrounding its deliberations and vote and the unreviewability of its decisions. At least since the seventeenth century, the grand jury has deliberated in secret, and neither the judge nor the prosecutor may question the grand jury’s findings, conclusions, or motives. In fact, the 1974 version of the Federal Handbook for Grand Jurors notes that “[t]he secrecy imposed upon grand jurors is a major source of protection for them.” UNITED STATES JUDICIAL CONFERENCE COMMITTEE ON THE OPERATION OF THE GRAND JURY SYSTEM, HANDBOOK FOR FEDERAL GRAND JURORS 14 (1974). With this instruction, the Handbook seems to recognize that secrecy is part of the reason that grand jurors have immunity for actions brought against them in their capacity as grand jurors. Today, under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 6(e)(7), grand jurors may not disclose their deliberations or vote, on penalty of imprisonment. See 18 U.S.C. § 401. The grand jury’s decision to indict or not is unreviewable in any forum; its decision is final. See Costello, 350 U.S. at 362-63 (“ ‘No case has been cited, nor have we been able to find any, furnishing an authority for looking into and revising the judgment of the grand jury upon the evidence’ ”) (quoting United States v. Reed, 27 Fed. Cas. 727, 738 (C.C.N.D.N.Y. 1852)). See also United States v. Bruce, 394 F.3d 1215, 1231 (9th Cir. 2005) (“[W]e may not presume to correct the decisions of the grand jury . . . except through our judgments, any more than we can, except through our judgments, correct the prosecutorial decisions of the executive.”). It is true that the district court may convene another grand jury and the prosecutor may seek another indictment, but there is no check on the grand jury’s refusal or failure to return an indictment. Like other officers of the court, the grand jury enjoys absolute 5542 UNITED STATES v. NAVARRO-VARGAS immunity from civil or criminal suit for its acts, which prevents any inquiry into the grand jury’s motivations. See Imbler v. Pachtman, 424 U.S. 409, 423 n.20 (1976) (Grand jurors possess absolute immunity because like a judge they must “exercise a discretionary judgment on the basis of evidence presented to them.”); Yaselli v. Goff, 12 F.2d 396, 403 (2d Cir. 1926) (Grand jurors and other judicial officers are not liable “in a civil suit for a judicial determination, however erroneous it may be, and however malicious the motive which has produced it.”). See, e.g., Turpen v. Booth, 56 Cal. 65 (1880); Hunter v. Mathis, 40 Ind. 356 (1872). It is the fact that its judgments are unreviewable and its deliberations unknowable that gives the grand jury its independence. Indeed, the grand jury is uniquely unaccountable; grand jurors are insulated from public oversight in ways that no other government instrumentality is. Judges must issue their decisions on the public record; prosecutors must inform the accused of the nature of the charges and conduct a public trial. U.S. CONST. amend. VI. Decisions by judges and prosecutors are subject to review and public criticism; and, in extreme cases, judges and executive officers may be impeached for their decisions and, if convicted, removed from office. U.S. CONST. art. I, § 3, cl. 7. Grand juries are not subject to these constraints. The grand jury that refused to indict the Earl of Shaftesbury insisted on keeping its deliberations secret and thus avoided the king’s retribution. The American jury that refused to indict Peter Zenger could do so because there was no retort to its response of “no bill.” And grand jurors who failed to indict those critical of the President under the Alien and Sedition Acts were free to do so in defiance of their instructions precisely because there was no recrimination or inquiry to be had into their acts. Their names — unlike the subjects of investigation, the prosecutors, and instructing judges — are lost to history.22 22 Moreover, because grand jury proceedings are secret, we can only speculate as to the motives for these grand juries refusing to return the UNITED STATES v. NAVARRO-VARGAS 5543 Grand jury independence is a two-edged sword, of course, because the same privilege is due grand jurors who refuse to indict for violations of civil rights laws or who take into account the race or gender of the accused or the victim when deciding to return a no bill. In all of these cases, for better or for worse, it is the structure of the grand jury process and its function in our system that makes it independent.23 C. Appellants’ Objections to the Model Instructions With this in mind, we turn to the Appellants’ arguments. They challenge three instructions that in their view “demean” the grand jury’s historical responsibility. Appellants do not ask us to rewrite the instructions in any particular way, but they suggest that no instruction would be better than an incorrect instruction. We consider each challenged instruction in turn.
Navarro-Vargas and Leon-Jasso first challenge the passage that states: You cannot judge the wisdom of the criminal laws indictments. In fact, the model charge being challenged here specifically instructs grand jurors that they “may not disclose the contents of [their] deliberations and the vote of any juror even to government attorneys.” See also FEDERAL JUDICIAL CENTER 1996, BENCHBOOK FOR U.S. DISTRICT COURT JUDGES § 7.04 (4th ed. 2000 rev.). 23 “Given the ‘almost invariable assumption of the law that jurors follow their instructions,’ ” instructing a grand jury not to judge the wisdom of Congress’s laws hardly “undermines the very structural protections” of the institution. Cf. Dissent at 5568 (quoting Richardson v. Marsh, 481 U.S. 200, 206 (1987)). Instead, that “invariable assumption” is an illustration of the grand jury’s independence: We must presume that grand jurors will follow instructions because, in fact, we are prohibited from examining jurors to verify whether they understood the instruction as given and then followed it. 5544 UNITED STATES v. NAVARRO-VARGAS enacted by Congress, that is, whether or not there should or should not be a federal law designating certain activity as criminal. That is to be determined by Congress and not by you. Appellants contend that this passage unconstitutionally misinstructs the grand jury as to its role and function. They assert that no authority supports the district court’s decision to circumscribe the subject matter of the grand jurors’ inquiries and deliberations. According to Appellants, this limitation “run[s] counter to the whole history of the grand jury institution, in which laymen conduct their inquiries unfettered by technical rules.” Br. of Appellant at 7 (citing Costello, 350 U.S. at 364). In addition, Appellants argue that federal courts have limited powers to fashion rules of grand jury procedure and that they cannot use this power to reshape the grand jury institution, “substantially altering the traditional relationships between the prosecutor, the constituting court, and the grand jury itself.” Br. of Appellant at 8 (citing Williams, 504 U.S. at 50). They further contend that since the grand jury has the power to charge greater or lesser offenses, Vasquez, 474 U.S. at 263, it can surely judge the wisdom of a particular law in determining whether to indict. Appellants submit that this faulty instruction constitutes structural error requiring dismissal of the indictment. Cf. Bank of Nova Scotia v. United States, 487 U.S. 250, 256-57 (1988). [3] We first wish to observe that the instruction is not contrary to any long-standing historical practice surrounding the grand jury. We know of no English or American practice to advise grand juries that they may stand in judgment of the wisdom of the laws before them. Indeed, there is strong evidence to support the current instruction. We have previously cited the attestation or oath required of grand jurors in an early and influential colonial constitution which enjoined the jurors to “diligently enquire and true presentment make, of all such matters and things as shall be given thee in charge, or come to thy knowledge.” See 5 THORPE, supra, at 3072. We UNITED STATES v. NAVARRO-VARGAS 5545 have also cited evidence of charges given shortly after the adoption of the Bill of Rights in which federal judges charged grand juries with a duty to submit to the law and to strictly enforce it. See supra note 13. The phrase “wisdom of the laws” is not a term of art. We might assume that the phrase means that juries cannot question whether the law represents good policy. If a grand jury can sit in judgment of wisdom of the policy behind a law, then the power to return a no bill in such cases is the clearest form of “jury nullification.”24 The “wisdom of the laws” might also refer to a broader power of substantive constitutional review — the power to determine that the law is unconstitutional and, therefore, void. AMAR, supra, at 98 & n.64. See Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137, 180 (1803) (“[A] law repugnant to the constitution is void . . . [and] courts, as well as other departments, are bound by that instrument.”). We doubt that the grand jury is particularly well suited to make either of these judgments, although, as we discuss below, there is no check on the ability of the grand jury to do so. The grand jury can only choose to indict or not in the cases before 24 The popular phrase “jury nullification” curiously echoes arguments by James Madison and Thomas Jefferson for state nullification of congressional acts, arguments that we have long since rejected. The resolutions drafted by Madison and Jefferson supported, of course, Virginia and Kentucky’s claims that the Alien and Sedition Acts violated the First Amendment. Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 and 1799 in 4 JONATHAN ELLIOT, THE DEBATES IN THE SEVERAL STATE CONVENTIONS ON THE ADOPTION OF THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION 545 (2d ed. 1888); Virginia Resolutions of 1798 in 4 ELLIOT, supra, at 528. Any question of state nullification was resolved against the states in Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137 (1803), which established the Court as the “final arbiter of the Constitution.” Christian G. Fritz, Alternative Visions of American Constitutionalism: Popular Sovereignty and the Early American Constitutional Debate, 24 HASTINGS CONST. L.Q. 287, 346-47 (1997). Even at the time of the Resolutions, no other state endorsed them and “several Federalist legislatures replied with strongly nationalist resolutions denying the right of state assemblies to pass on the validity of federal statutes.” H. Jefferson Powell, The Original Understanding of Original Intent, 98 HARV. L. REV. 885, 926 (1985). 5546 UNITED STATES v. NAVARRO-VARGAS it. It cannot make judgments about any other cases, and since the jurors’ deliberations are secret, no judge, prosecutor, or grand jury can rely on its reasoning in the future. Furthermore, the grand jury has few tools for informing itself of the policy or legal justification for the law; it receives no briefs or arguments from the parties. The grand jury has little but its own visceral reaction on which to judge the “wisdom of the law.” [4] By contrast, if the president or the attorney general determines that a law is either unwise or unconstitutional, he may decline to enforce the law and will do so systematically and, often, publicly. 28 U.S.C. § 530D(a) (requiring notice to Senate of Department of Justice’s decision not to defend an act of Congress). See also Cox, 342 F.2d at 182 (Brown, J., concurring); id. at 193 (Wisdom, J., concurring). And, as we have noted, he is answerable for his judgment. Similarly, if a court finds that a law is unconstitutional, the judgment extends to all cases within the court’s jurisdiction, and the decision is public and subject to review. The grand jury is, by design, isolated from other influences. The prospect of a grand jury here and there deciding for itself that a law lacked “wisdom” is an invitation to lawlessness and something less than the equal protection of the laws.25 See AMAR, supra, at 103 (“[Accepting the] argument for jury review would have vested in fundamentally local bodies a power that approached de facto nullification in a wide range of situations. Existence of such a power in local bodies to nullify Congress’s Reconstruction statutes might have rendered the Civil War Amendments a virtual dead letter.”); FRANKEL & NAFTALIS, supra, at 23 (“[I]t is not profitable to mourn the grand jury’s ‘loss’ of 25 The dissent demonstrates the problem when it notes that it is “conceivable that a grand jury made aware of its role as ‘conscience of the community’ would have provided ‘relief where strict application of the law would prove unduly harsh.’ ” Dissent at 5572 (quoting Gaither v. United States, 413 F.2d 1061, 1066 n.6 (D.C. Cir. 1969)). While there will always be risks that grand juries will behave inconsistently, the Grand Jury Clause does not require that we invite such caprice. UNITED STATES v. NAVARRO-VARGAS 5547 independence [because] an independent grand jury would be intolerable[.]”). We recognize and do not discount that some grand jurors might in fact vote to return a no bill because they regard the law as unwise at best or even unconstitutional. For all the reasons we have discussed, there is no post hoc remedy for that; the grand jury’s motives are not open to examination. Moreover, there is no ex ante solution either; there is nothing to prevent a grand jury from engaging in nullification or substantive constitutional review, not even the model grand jury instructions. History demonstrates that grand juries do not derive their independence from a judge’s instruction. Instead, they derive their independence from an unreviewable power to decide whether to indict or not. [5] The question before us is whether judging the wisdom of the law is so integral to the role of the grand jury that it is constitutional error for the district court to instruct against it. We cannot say that the instruction is so contrary to the grand jury’s role that it violates the Fifth Amendment. Or, put another way, we cannot say that the grand jury’s power to judge the wisdom of the laws is so firmly established that the district court must either instruct the jury on its power to nullify the laws or remain silent.
Navarro-Vargas and Leon-Jasso also claim that the following passage misinstructs the grand jury: [Y]our task is to determine whether the govern- ment’s evidence as presented to you is sufficient to cause you to conclude that there is probable cause to believe that the accused is guilty of the offense charged. To put it another way, you should vote to indict where the evidence presented to you is sufficiently strong to warrant a reasonable person’s 5548 UNITED STATES v. NAVARRO-VARGAS believing that the accused is probably guilty of the offense with which the accused is charged. Appellants claim that this passage is unconstitutional because it instructs grand jurors that they “should” indict if they find probable cause, but does not explain that they can refuse to indict even if they find probable cause. Further, Appellants argue that the instructions use the singular terms “purpose”26 and “task” in advising the grand jurors that their sole responsibility is to make probable cause determinations. Even though the instructions indicate that the jurors “should” indict if they find probable cause, Appellants believe that the model charge reasonably read, imposes upon the grand jury a duty to indict if they find probable cause. Appellants argue that this improper instruction deprives them of the “traditional functioning of the institution that the Fifth Amendment demands.” Br. of Appellants at 18 (citing Williams, 504 U.S. at 51). [6] This instruction does not violate the grand jury’s independence. The language of the model charge does not state that the jury “must” or “shall” indict, but merely that it “should” indict if it finds probable cause. As a matter of pure semantics, it does not “eliminate discretion on the part of the grand jurors,” leaving room for the grand jury to dismiss even if it finds probable cause. Marcucci, 299 F.3d at 1159.27 26 The singular term “purpose,” referred to by Appellants, is used earlier in the model charge: The purpose of a Grand Jury is to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to justify a formal accusation against a person. If law enforcement officials were not required to submit to an impartial Grand Jury proof of guilt as to a proposed charge against a person suspected of having committed a crime, they would be free to arrest and bring to trial a suspect no matter how little evidence existed to support the charge. 27 The first model grand jury charge approved by the Judicial Conference left even less room for the grand jury to exercise its discretion. It instructed the grand jury: “It is your duty to see to it that indictments are returned against those who you find probable cause to believe are guilty and not against the innocent.” Model Charge to Grand Juries, Report of the Committee on the Operation of the Jury System 3 (September 1978). UNITED STATES v. NAVARRO-VARGAS 5549 [7] Even assuming that the grand jury should exercise something akin to prosecutorial discretion, the instruction does not infringe upon that discretion. The analogy that the Court recognized between the grand jury and the prosecutor is useful for understanding the source of both the grand jury’s and prosecutor’s discretion. See Economou, 438 U.S. at 510. Under Article II, § 3, the president “shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.” That duty can be delegated to subordinates, including the attorney general and the U.S. attorneys serving in each judicial district. Myers v. United States, 272 U.S. 52, 163-64 (1926) (“[A]rticle 2 grants to the President the executive power of the government — i.e., the general administrative control of those executing the laws, including the power of appointment and removal of executive officers — a conclusion confirmed by his obligation to take care that the laws be faithfully executed[.]”); Ponzi v. Fassenden, 258 U.S. 254, 262 (1922). U.S. attorneys, operating with limited resources, are literally incapable of seeing that each and every federal law is executed. Allocating their resources, they decide whether those resources are better put to prosecuting narcotraficantes, 21 U.S.C. § 1906; government fraud, 18 U.S.C. § 1031, and public corruption, 18 U.S.C. § 666; or to pursuing unlawful transportation of dentures, 18 U.S.C. § 1821; disruption of zoos, circuses, and rodeos, 18 U.S.C. § 43; or parking violations committed on federal lands, 36 C.F.R. § 4.13. See Wayte v. United States, 470 U.S. 598, 607 (1985) (The government relies on “[s]uch factors as the strength of the case, the prosecution’s general deterrence value, the Government’s enforcement priorities, and the case’s relationship to the Government’s overall enforcement plan” in determining which cases to prosecute.); LAFAVE, ET AL., supra, § 13.2(d) (pointing out that with the great assortment of crimes and limited government resources often prosecutors are choosing who “will” be prosecuted rather than who will not be prosecuted). It is also possible that an attorney general might decide not to enforce, or at least to underenforce, politically controversial laws or laws that, in the attorney general’s view, are unconstitutional. In effect, a decision 5550 UNITED STATES v. NAVARRO-VARGAS not to prosecute someone who would likely be indicted and could be convicted is a form of prosecutorial nullification. See Cox, 342 F.2d at 169-70 (Attorney General instructed U.S. Attorney not to seek indictment even though the grand jury voted to indict and the district court placed him under civil contempt of court for refusing to indict.). Notwithstanding Article II’s instruction to take care that the laws are faithfully executed, the president and those who represent him have broad independence in their prosecutorial decisions. The president’s independence arises not out of any constitutional direction to exercise prosecutorial discretion, prosecutorial nullification, or substantive constitutional review, but out of the lack of any check on the president’s ability to do so. The president operates virtually without check on decisions not to charge violations. There are, of course, long-term checks on the president. Congress has broad powers of inquiry and may, if necessary, impeach a president for his decisions. In extreme cases, courts may make judgments about selective prosecutions that violate the promise of due process or equal protection of the laws. United States v. Armstrong, 517 U.S. 456, 464 (1996) (The equal protection component of the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment prohibits selective prosecutions based on “race, religion, or other arbitrary classification[.]”); United States v. Olvis, 97 F.3d 739, 743 (4th Cir. 1996). The people have a check by bringing political pressure on the president and, if the president seeks a second term, to offer a referendum vote at the ballot box on the president’s judgment in enforcing the laws. In this respect, the grand jury has even greater powers of nonprosecution than the executive because there is, literally, no check on a grand jury’s decision not to return an indictment. The grand jury has no accountability at the ballot box, before Congress, the President, or the courts. The grand jury’s duty to follow the Constitution is no less than the President’s duty to take care that the laws are faithfully executed. It is the grand jury’s position in the constitutional scheme that gives UNITED STATES v. NAVARRO-VARGAS 5551 it its independence, not any instructions that a court might offer. [8] Even though the terms “purpose” and “task” are singular, conveying that the grand jury has one purpose, these instructions do not undermine the grand jury’s purpose and function. The instructions remind the grand jury that it has “extensive powers” and in “a very real sense stand[s] between the government and the accused.” Admittedly, the instructions do not explain to the grand jury what its “extensive powers” are or have been in the past, including its power to refuse to indict even when a conviction can be obtained. However, the instructions remind the grand jury of its independence from the federal government and leave room for it to refuse to indict. Consequently, we conclude that this instruction is not inconsistent with the Fifth Amendment.
Government Attorneys Finally, Appellants claim that the following passage inappropriately instructs the grand jury: The United States Attorney and his Assistant United States Attorneys will provide you with important service in helping you to find your way when con- fronted with complex legal problems. It is entirely proper that you should receive this assistance. If past experience is any indication of what to expect in the future, then you can expect candor, honesty, and good faith in matters presented by the government attorneys. Appellants claim that this vote of confidence by the judge to the honesty of the government attorneys further undermines the independence of the grand jury. They argue that the grand jury is told to independently evaluate probable cause but that 5552 UNITED STATES v. NAVARRO-VARGAS this independence is diluted by this instruction that encourages deference to prosecutors.28 [9] We also reject this final contention and hold that although this passage may include unnecessary language, it does not violate the Constitution. The “candor, honesty, and good faith” language, when read in the context of the instructions as a whole, does not violate the constitutional relationship between the prosecutor and grand jury. The contested passage may be surplusage, but it is not unprecedented. Apparently, these laudatory comments about the prosecutor have been included in grand jury materials for some time. Model Grand Jury Charge, Report of the Proceedings of the Judicial Conference of the United States A-12 (March 12, 1986); Model Grand Jury Charge, Report of the Proceedings of the Judicial Conference of the United States 15 (September 21, 1978) (“If past experience is any indication of what to expect in the future, then you can expect candor, honesty, and good faith efforts in every matter presented by the government.”). See also Cox, 342 F.2d at 177 (Rives, Gewin, and Bell, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part) (quoting The Manual for Grand Jurors, Cong. Rec. A1115, (Feb. 21, 1952) (noting that the U.S. Attorney is “an intelligent, experienced individual acting in all sincerity” but that “he is from the viewpoint of the grand jury, only a lawyer, an agent of the Federal Department of Justice and by law he is the only legal advisor to the grand jury”). The instructions balance the praise for the government’s attorney by informing the grand jurors that some have criticized the grand jury as a “mere rubber stamp” to the prosecution and reminding them that the grand jury is “independent of the United States Attorney[.]” We do not regard this reference in the same way that we do 28 See, e.g., Fouts, 79 IND. L.J. at 342-43 (suggesting that the phrase “candor, honesty, and good faith” should be removed, and the language relating to the independence of the grand jury be moved to the beginning of the instruction). UNITED STATES v. NAVARRO-VARGAS 5553 vouching for witnesses. See United States v. Combs, 379 F.3d 564, 574-76 (9th Cir. 2004) (improper vouching by prosecutor for government witness constituted plain error requiring reversal); United States v. Ortiz, 362 F.3d 1274, 1278 (9th Cir. 2004). The U.S. attorney is not testifying, but is presenting the testimony of others. The phrase is not vouching for the prosecutor, but is closer to advising the grand jury of the presumption of regularity and good faith that the branches of government ordinarily afford each other. United States v. Chem. Found., Inc., 272 U.S. 1, 14-15 (1926) (“The presumption of regularity supports the official acts of public officers, and, in the absence of clear evidence to the contrary, courts presume that they have properly discharged their official duties.”); Nat’l Treasury Employees Union v. Reagan, 509 F. Supp. 1337, 1342 (D.D.C. 1981) (“[T]he judiciary is legally bound to give deference to the presumption of regularity of the actions taken by a coordinate and equal branch of government (here the executive) unless it is contrary to law.”). Again, the question before us is whether this language is unconstitutional, not whether it is overly deferential or unnecessary. This passage would be problematic if it misinstructed the grand jury that it was an agent of the U.S. attorney and not an independent body acting as a check to the prosecutor’s power. However, it does not do this. It reminds the grand jury that it stands between the government and the accused and is independent. The laudatory language is likely unnecessary, but it surely does not threaten the constitutional relationship between the prosecutor and grand jury. [10] In upholding the model grand jury instructions against Appellants’ constitutional challenge, we do not necessarily hold that the current instructions could not or should not be improved. We recognize the commentary pointing to discrete changes that tend to reduce the independence of the modern grand jury29 and the commentary urging reform in expanding 29 One change is that federal grand juries no longer use their presentment power. While presentments used to be a source for grand juries to express 5554 UNITED STATES v. NAVARRO-VARGAS the grand jury’s duty and role in the criminal process.30 We even concede that there may be more done to further increase the shielding power of the modern federal grand jury. However, we are not a drafting committee for the grand jury instructions.31 We are not faced with the question of how to reform the modern grand jury but whether its model instructions are their grievances and views about current events, in 1946, the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure omitted any reference to the presentment power. Renee B. Lettow, Note, Reviving Federal Grand Jury Presentments, 103 YALE L.J. 1333, 1343 (1994) (“For all practical purposes, the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure have abolished the grand jury’s presentment power.”). 30 Despite pleas by commentators for reform, Congress has not attempted to reform the federal grand jury for several years. Mark J. Kadish, Behind the Locked Door of An American Grand Jury: Its History, Its Secrecy, and Its Process, 24 FLA. ST. U. L. REV. 1, 63 (1996) (noting that “the last major effort by Congress at federal grand jury reform” was the Grand Jury Reform Act of 1985, H.R. 1407, 99th Cong. (1985)). In the late 1970s, Congress considered reforming the grand jury after alleged abuses of the system by President Nixon’s Justice Department. Leipold, 80 CORNELL L. REV. at 272. Congress even considered several proposals to abolish the grand jury requirement from the Fifth Amendment. Id. (citing Grand Jury Reform: Hearings on H.R. 94 Before the Subcomm. on Immigration, Citizenship, and International Law of the House Comm. on the Judiciary, 95th Cong. 995-1002 (1977) (text of four proposed amendments); id. at 1003 (summary of proposals)). 31 In fact, we note that the Committee on Court Administration and Case Management is currently considering proposed revisions to the Model Grand Jury Charge approved by the Judicial Conference in 1986. Committee Activities, Report of the Proceedings of the Judicial Conference of the United States 13 (Sept. 21, 2004). In March 2005, the Committee submitted a proposed model grand jury charge to the Judicial Conference. Committee on Court Administration and Case Management, Addendum to the Report of the Judicial Conference: Model Grand Jury Charge app. 1 (March 2005). After a comprehensive review of the two existing model grand jury charges, the one in the Benchbook for U.S. District Court Judges and the Model Grand Jury Charge approved by the Judicial Con- ference in 1986, the Committee recommended a draft model grand jury charge that included all three phrases that Appellants challenge here. Id. at App. D-2, D-7, D-8. UNITED STATES v. NAVARRO-VARGAS 5555 constitutional. To answer this question, we hold that the provisions of the model grand jury instructions challenged here are constitutional.