Opinion ID: 1230599
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Does the United States Constitution require a showing of probable cause before records of a business can be subpoenaed?

Text: It is Jaramillo's claim that the fourth and fourteenth amendments of the United States Constitution require a showing of probable cause before records of a business can be subpoenaed. We disagree. The Commission is an investigatory rather than an accusatory body and therefore its subpoenas are administrative subpoenas. Dixon v. Pennsylvania Crime Commission, 347 F. Supp. 138 (M.D.Pa. 1972); Illinois Crime Investigating Com'n v. Buccieri, 36 Ill.2d 556, 224 N.E.2d 236 (1967). Administrative subpoenas, including subpoenas duces tecum, are not subject to the search and seizure provisions of the fourth amendment. United States v. Morton Salt Co., 338 U.S. 632, 70 S.Ct. 357, 94 L.Ed. 401 (1950); Oklahoma Press Pub. Co. v. Walling, 327 U.S. 186, 66 S.Ct. 494, 90 L.Ed. 614 (1946); 1 K. Davis, Administrative Law Treatise, § 3.05 (1958). The fourth amendment, however, requires that a subpoena be sufficiently limited in scope and relevant in purpose. See v. City of Seattle, 387 U.S. 541, 544, 87 S.Ct. 1737, 18 L.Ed.2d 943 (1967). The United States Supreme Court has set three requirements an agency must meet in issuing subpoenas: (a) the inquiry must be within the authority of the agency; (b) the demand must not be too indefinite; and (c) the information must be reasonably relevant to the purpose of the investigation. Morton, supra, 338 U.S. at 652, 70 S.Ct. 357. If a subpoena does not meet the three requirements then it is violative of the fourth amendment. Under the Act the Legislature provided that the Commission must petition the district court to obtain a subpoena. The district court must determine whether the investigation is within the power of the Commission, whether the subpoena is definite enough and whether the material sought is reasonably relevant. What is reasonably relevant depends on the nature and purpose of the investigation and relevancy cannot be determined in the absence of a stated purpose. Once the purpose is ascertained it must be shown that the material sought has a logical relation to the purpose of the investigation. Oklahoma Press, supra, 327 U.S. at 209, 66 S.Ct. 494; See also Davis, supra, § 3.06. If the Commission is able to make such a showing the subpoena will issue. After a subpoena is issued the individual or institution upon whom it is served has an opportunity to challenge it. The subpoenas issued under the Act ask only for voluntary compliance. Under § 39-9-4 D, N.M.S.A. 1953 (Inter. Supp. 1976-77) of the Act the Commission is authorized to go to any district court to seek enforcement of the subpoena. The Legislature must have contemplated that the subpoenaed person would be allowed to show at that hearing why the subpoena should not be enforced. We need not reach the question of whether the subpoena in the present case was proper. The trial court held that Jaramillo could not intervene to challenge the sufficiency of the petition upon which the subpoena was issued. Jaramillo did not appeal that ruling.