Court Opinion

ID: 9480325
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 07:44:48.947213+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:47:36.915765
License: Public Domain

SLOVITER, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
The majority opinion presents some good reasons why the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure or even the local rules of the district court would make available to a grand jury witness information regarding the life of the grand jury before which the witness is called to testify. Were I in a rule-making position, I might cast my vote along with the majority for that position. However, I see nothing in the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure which adopts the position taken by the majority. Moreover, the district court from which this case comes, unlike those to which the majority refers, has not adopted a rule or followed the practice of making such information generally available.
Under these circumstances, I believe the issue is not whether there are any policies weighing against disclosure of the termination date. See maj. at 183. Instead, since we sit as an appellate court and not as a policy-making body, the issue is whether the appellant has shown any right to the information strong enough to override the decision of the judges of that district that such information should not be made available. The majority has failed to convince me that there is any grounding for such a right.
The majority relies on two bases for finding a right for the witness to receive the information. First, it refers to the right of public access to court records. Although I embrace the principle, see Bank of America Nat’l. Trust & Savings Ass’n. v. Hotel Rittenhouse Assoc., 800 F.2d 339 (3d Cir.1986); United States v. Criden, 648 F.2d 814 (3d Cir.1981), neither this court nor the Supreme Court has held it applicable to grand jury materials which have traditionally been viewed as presenting a different situation. The second basis to which the majority refers is the right of the witness not to be held beyond the jury’s termination date. I am unconvinced that the public dissemination of the grand jury dates is necessary to accomplish this. A motion or petition to the presiding judge should suffice.
If we were to consider policy reasons, then I could not completely discount the government’s position on the merits. A witness such as this appellant, who has been obdurate in refusing to answer questions, does not have a particularly compelling position upon which to ground his claim for access. The applicable statute has been drafted to provide a strong disincentive to a witness who, after being given immunity, still refuses to disclose the information needed by the grand jury. The witness’ obligation, plain and simple, is to answer the questions whether he faces one week or seventeen months additional incarceration. It is for the legislature or the rule-makers to weigh the reasons for disclosure against the government’s argument that disclosure detracts from the strong compulsion to testify which underlies the immunity statute or presents some other problem inimical to the need for secrecy. In the absence of any right granted in rule, statute or public policy, we should not interfere with the discretion of the district court to keep the commencement and termination dates of the grand jury secret. Therefore, I respectfully dissent.