Shapiro v. United States

In Shapiro v. United States, 335 U.S. 1, 92 L. Ed. 1787, 68 S. Ct. 1375, reh'g denied, 335 U.S. 836, 93 L. Ed. 388, 69 S. Ct. 9 (1948), the Supreme Court of the United States held that the compelled production of sales records by merchants did not violate the Fifth Amendment. Under the Emergency Price Control Act of 1942, licensed businesses were required to maintain records and make them available for inspection by administrators. The Court stated no Fifth Amendment protection attached to production of the "required records" which the "defendant was required to keep, not for his private uses, but for the benefit of the public, and for public inspection." Shapiro, 335 U.S. at 17-18, 92 L. Ed. at 1799 (quoting Wilson v. United States, 221 U.S. 361, 381, 55 L. Ed. 771, 779, 31 S. Ct. 538 (1911)).