Court Opinion

ID: 9426138
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:16:57.591975+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:22:59.266647
License: Public Domain

Mr. Chief Justice Burger,
concurring in the judgment.
I cannot escape the conclusion that this case is something of a tempest in a saucer, and the Court rightly avoids placing the result on constitutional grounds. A dubious aspect of the Court’s opinion is to renew the dictum of Grunewald v. United States, 353 U. S. 391 (1957), see ante, at 178, and n. 6. There the Court casually elevated a fallacy into a general proposition in terms that the innocent “are more likely to [remain silent] in secret proceedings . . . than in open court proceedings . . . .” To begin with, there is not a scintilla of empirical data to support the first generalization nor is it something generally accepted as validated by ordinary human experience. It is no more accurate than to say, for example, that the innocent rather than the guilty, are the first to protest their innocence. There is simply no basis for declaring a generalized probability one way or the other. Second, the Grünewald suggestion that people are more likely to speak out “in open court proceedings . . .” has no basis in human experience. A confident, assured person will likely speak out in either place; a timid, insecure person may be more overwhelmed by the formality of “open court proceedings” than by a police station. Moreover, if an accused is in *182“open court,” there is a constitutional option to remain totally silent, but if an accused takes the stand all admissible questions must be answered. A nonparty witness has less option than the accused and must take the stand if called. We ought to be wary of casual generalizations that read well but “do not wash.”