Court Opinion

ID: 9474396
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 04:56:09.85259+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:44:03.514793
License: Public Domain

*1111BUTZNER, Senior Circuit Judge,
dissenting, with whom WINTER, Chief Judge, PHILLIPS, MURNAGHAN, and ERVIN, Circuit Judges join:
For reasons set forth in the opinion of the panel, United States v. Smith, 750 F.2d 1215 (4th Cir.1984), I believe the district court properly interpreted and applied the Classified Information Procedures Act, 18 U.S.C.App. 3, and its order should be affirmed. Two additional comments are prompted by the opinion of the en banc court.
I
Congress was aware of the government’s desire to impress on pending legislation the standard of admissibility of classified evidence derived from Roviaro v. United States, 353 U.S. 53, 77 S.Ct. 623, 1 L.Ed.2d 639 (1957). An assistant attorney general testified:
The “relevant and material” standard we propose for inclusion in S. 1482 is based on the standard adopted by the Supreme Court in Roviaro v. United States, 353 U.S. 53, [77 S.Ct. 623, 1 L.Ed.2d 639] (1957) for determining whether the defendant is entitled to obtain and disclose the identity of a government informant in a criminal case. Noting the important “public interest in effective law enforcement” served by the protection of the identity of informants, the Court in Roviaro ruled that disclosure of such sensitive information is not required unless the information “is relevant and helpful to the defense of an accused or is essential to a fair determination of a cause.” 353 U.S. at 59, 60-61 [77 S.Ct. at 627, 628]. Thus, the Court found in the informant situation that the significant government interest in nondisclosure requires that a more demanding standard than relevance be employed. Certainly a similar standard would be appropriate in cases involving national security matters, for the interest in protecting the confidentiality of classified information is equally, if not more, compelling than that in protecting the identities of law enforcement informants.
Testimony of Feb. 7, 1980, before Subcommittee on Criminal Justice of the Committee on the Judiciary, S. No. 96-57 at 18.
In testimony before a House Subcommittee, the assistant attorney general explicitly characterized the standard derived from Roviaro as an “important” difference between the House and the administration bills. Noting that the House bill did not include the Roviaro standard of “relevant *1112and material,” he testified at length on the reasons this omission should be rectified. Testimony of Aug. 7, 1979, before Subcommittee on Legislation of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, at 8-11. The government’s argument in this appeal is essentially a paraphrase of the assistant attorney general’s testimony.
The Congress rejected the assistant attorney general’s recommendation. Congressional intent not to incorporate the Ro-viaro standard is manifest from legislative history. The Senate Report states:
It should be emphasized, however, that the court should not balance the national security interests of the Government against the rights of the defendant to obtain the information. The sanctions against the Government are designed to make the defendant whole again.
S.Rep. No. 823, 96th Cong., 2d Sess. at 9, reprinted in 1980 U.S.Cong. and Ad.News 4294, 4303. We cannot accept the notion expressed in note 8 of the majority opinion that this unequivocal statement is inconsistent with congressional intent. It is clear from the text of the Act and its legislative history that the Congress intended the Executive, not the courts, to decide whether to expose relevant classified information subject to sanctions the Act provides. The Act does not incorporate the Rovario standard. It omitted the requirement that the evidence be “relevant and material,” as urged by the Department of Justice’s spokesman. Now the majority opinion embraces what the Congress rejected.
Smith is not seeking disclosure by the government of two items of classified evidence that are the subject of this appeal. He has no need to discover it. He possesses this evidence and seeks to introduce it in his defense. The district court has ruled that it is relevant and admissible.
The text of the statute, its legislative history, and cases interpreting it establish that the Act does not alter existing standards for determining relevance and admissibility of evidence. Existing standards apply Roviaro to requests for discovery of information known to the government but unknown to the defendant. Under existing standards which the Congress intended to leave intact, Roviaro did not exclude the introduction of relevant evidence known to the defendant. See 353 U.S. at 60 n. 8, 77 S.Ct. at 627 n. 8; United States v. God-kins, 527 F.2d 1321, 1325-27 (5th Cir.1976). Consequently, the majority is unable to cite a case in which the informer’s privilege was successfully invoked to bar a defendant from calling an informant as a witness when his identity and whereabouts were known to the defendant and his testimony was relevant.
If under existing standards Roviaro governed admissibility of evidence known to the defendant, there would be little need for the Act. A simple pretrial disclosure rule such as those required for alibi, insanity, or rape would suffice if the government was required to disclose to the court the necessary information to balance intelligently the defendant's needs against the interests of national security. The Act, however, was designed to shield the government from the necessity of explaining to the court at the hearing contemplated by § 6(a) the information that is ordinarily furnished by the government when a Roviaro request is denied under existing law.
The application of Roviaro to exclude relevant evidence known to the defendant, instead of confining its principles to discovery requests, significantly alters the existing standard for determining the admissibility of evidence in contravention of express congressional intent. This novel alteration of the standard is made at the cost of introducing confusion into a well drafted, straightforward procedure that at once protects national security and affords the defendant a fair trial. Contrary to the provisions of the Act, the court, in a hearing required by Section 6(a), will have to require the government to produce information in support of its claim that the interests of national security outweigh the defendant’s need to introduce relevant evidence which he already possesses. Alter*1113natively, the court will have to try and balance these interests without the information which Roviaro contemplates it should have.
Roviaro, of course, is still applicable to discovery requests. This is clearly explained in United States v. Pringle, 751 F.2d 419 (1st Cir.1984), on which the majority relies. There the court pointed out that none of the defendants “possessed classified information which they threatened to disclose. Quite to the contrary, they were seeking classified information which the government sought to protect.” 751 F.2d at 427. Consequently, the court held that the district court did not err in refusing discovery without convening a hearing under Section 6(a). It is apparent that Prin-gle dealt with a situátion quite different from the issues raised in this appeal about the Section 6(a) hearing.
The majority opinion, for which there is no precedent, departs both from the procedure set out in the Act and from existing standards for determining the admissibility of evidence that the Congress intended to leave intact. Sadly, the departure is altogether needless. If a district court follows step by step the procedures established by the Act and adheres to the congressional admonition to apply existing standards for determining the admissibility of evidence, the government’s interest in national security, which the district judge and all members of this court seek to protect, will be preserved. At the same time, the need of the defendant to present relevant evidence, which Congress recognized, will be addressed in the manner provided by the Act.
II
Section 6(c)(2) of the Act directs the district court to hold a hearing on a motion by the government for an alternative procedure for disclosure of classified information. Until this appeal is resolved, the district court cannot conduct a hearing pursuant to this section. Nevertheless, without a motion and without a hearing, the majority has decreed that two alternatives suggested by the government in its brief adequately serve the needs of the defendant.
Appellate pre-emption of the district judge’s functions specified by Section 6(c)(2) is unauthorized by the Act, and it is prejudicial. It deprives the defendant of the hearing Congress intended him to have. As a predicate to one of its rulings, the majority misapprehends the reasons the defense seeks to introduce certain evidence and the basis for the district court’s ruling. See App. 315, 326-27, 745, appellees brief 9-12; and appellees supplemental brief 7-8, which set forth the reasons the defense seeks to introduce the evidence and the rationale of the district court’s decision admitting it. A hearing contemplated by Section 6(c)(2) would enable the district court to avoid such an error.
I respectfully dissent.