Bellis v. United States

In Bellis v. United States, 417 U.S. 85, 90, 40 L. Ed. 2d 678, 94 S. Ct. 2179 (1974), a former partner of a dissolved three-partner law firm was served with a subpoena directing him to appear before a federal grand jury and to bring all records in his possession pertaining to the dissolved partnership for the years 1968 and 1969. In response to the subpoena, the former partner asserted the federal Fifth Amendment privilege against compelled self-incrimination. Quoting United States v. White, 322 U.S. 694, 88 L. Ed. 1542, 64 S. Ct. 1248 (1944), the Bellis court further stated: "The scope and nature of the economic activities of incorporated and unincorporated organizations and their representatives demand that the constitutional power of the federal and state governments to regulate those activities be correspondingly effective. The greater portion of evidence of wrongdoing by an organization or its representatives is usually to be found in the official records and documents of that organization. Were the cloak of the privilege to be thrown around these impersonal records and documents, effective enforcement of many federal and state laws would be impossible. The framers of the constitutional guarantee against compulsory self-disclosure, who were interested primarily in protecting individual civil liberties, cannot be said to have intended the privilege to be available to protect economic or other interests of such organizations so as to nullify appropriate governmental regulations" (id. at 90-91).