Court Opinion

ID: 9467686
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 01:53:45.362701+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:40:27.698956
License: Public Domain

CURTIS, District Judge,
dissenting:
I dissent for, in my view, the issue which the appeal raises here is moot.
This is an appeal from an order of the district court made December 18, 1978, releasing grand jury records from the secrecy provision of Title 18 U.S.C.A. § 3326 (1977), Fed.R.Crim.P. 6(e). Since the effect of the order was never stayed, Civil Division attorneys for the Justice Department have had full access to all the minutes, books, and records of the grand jury’s criminal investigation of these appellants. Even if we should hold that the district court erroneously permitted such disclosure, our rever*1193sal cannot restore any vestige of secrecy, any more than we can unring a bell. It seems unrealistic to suggest that, after more than two years of unrestricted use of the material by government attorneys and their staff, any shred of relevant information remains unexplored to which this now tattered veil of secrecy might give shelter.
Moreover, the appellants have a remedy more direct than this appeal. Since the record indicates that the government has commenced a civil suit against them, one in which such grand jury records will most surely be offered as evidence, appellants can at that time challenge all such evidence by objections to its admissibility, or by a motion to suppress. The district court, having the benefit of a full record before it, can then resolve any remaining questions regarding the government’s use of these grand jury materials.
Having concluded that the issue is moot due to the subsequent disclosure of grand jury materials, it follows that this court lacks subject-matter jurisdiction because no viable “case or controversy” is presented to us. U.S. Const, art. Ill, § 2, cl. 1. North Carolina v. Rice, 404 U.S. 244, 246, 92 S.Ct. 402, 404, 30 L.Ed.2d 413 (1971): Powell v. McCormack, 395 U.S. 486, 496 n.7, 89 S.Ct. 1944, 1950 n.7, 23 L.Ed.2d 491 (1969).
I would dismiss the appeal.