Opinion ID: 3031870
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The “Candor, Honesty, and Good Faith” of

Text: 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.