Doe v. United States (487 U.S. 201)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 22, 1988 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 487 U.S. 201 · 108 S. Ct. 2341
- Decided
- June 22, 1988
- Term
- October Term 1987
- Vote
- 8–1
- Majority author
- Justice Blackmun
- Issue area
- Criminal Procedure
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice Blackmun delivered the opinion of the Court. This case presents the question whether a court order compelling a target of a grand jury investigation to authorize foreign banks to disclose records of his accounts, without identifying those documents or acknowledging their existence, violates the target’s Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. I Petitioner, named here as John Doe, is the target of a federal grand jury investigation into possible federal offenses arising from suspected fraudulent manipulation of oil cargoes and receipt of unreported income. Doe appeared before the grand jury pursuant to a subpoena that directed him to produce records of transactions in accounts at three named banks in the Cayman Islands and Bermuda. Doe produced some bank records and testified that no additional records responsive to the subpoena were in his possession or control. When questioned about the existence or location of additional records, Doe invoked the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. The United States branches of the three foreign banks also were served with subpoenas commanding them to produce records of accounts over which Doe had signatory authority. Citing their governments’ bank-secrecy laws, which prohibit the disclosure of account records without the customer’s consent, the banks refused to comply. See App. to Pet. for Cert. 17a,…
Excerpt of a 48,111-character opinion. The full text and citation network load in the interactive viewer above.