Court Opinion

ID: 9723491
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 10:17:48.484454+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:49.105494
License: Public Domain

RATLIFF, Chief Judge,
concurring.
Preservation of grand jury secrecy is essential to the proper functioning of the grand jury system. The reasons for strict maintenance of such secrecy are cogently and succinctly stated in the quotation from United States v. Proctor and Gamble Co. (1958), 356 U.S. 677, 681-82, n. 6, 78 S.Ct. 983, 986, n. 6, 2 L.Ed.2d 1077 quoting from United States v. Rose (1954), 215 F.2d 617, 628-29, set forth in the majority opinion. Equally important and absolutely necessary to the preservation of grand jury se*162crecy is the protection of individual grand jurors from harassment, intimidation, and efforts to induce them to violate their oath of secrecy. This is especially true in this case where the the alleged inducements involved flagrant misrepresentation.
The contempt power is an important weapon in the court’s arsenal to protect grand jurors and to preserve grand jury secrecy. Although the contempt power should not be used indiscriminately, the matters alleged here, if established, render appropriate resort to the awesome power of contempt to preserve grand jury secrecy and protect members of grand juries. That the grand jury session here involved had been concluded does not give persons, even though members of the press, a license to induce or attempt to induce grand jurors to break their vow of secrecy and to destroy grand jury secrecy.
The fact that the Supreme Court of the United States has recognized the necessity of preserving grand jury secrecy rebuts appellee’s arguments that their First Amendment rights were violated by the contempt proceedings in this case. The trial court’s dismissal of the contempt information based on First Amendment grounds was erroneous.
For the reasons stated herein as well as those stated by Judge Hoffman, I concur.