Background out of which case arose.

• Jurisdiction: United States

Section 176. Background out of which case arose.—In the late 1940's and early 1950's, the Department of Justice embarked on a series of intensive Grand Jury investigations. During the early 1950's, also, the Kefauver Committee was extremely active. Many witnesses called in both of those investigations claimed their privilege against self-incrimination. When they thereafter were ordered to testify and refused, contempt proceedings were instituted against them, and, in the course of defending those proceedings, a good deal of law was made, as the citations in the note indicate.¹

For present purposes, the first important Supreme Court decision was (Patricia) Blau v. United States,² which held that a witness was entitled to claim the privilege in respect of answers to questions which, while innocuous on their face, might none the less supply needed links in the case against the witness. And Patricia Blau's case was followed by Hoffman v. United States³ wherein the Court spelled out the governing principles in detail, reversing the Third Circuit in the process.

Greenberg v. United States is the subject of this chapter. It was decided by the Third Circuit subsequent to, and on the same reasoning as, its Hoffman decision.⁴ After certiorari had been granted in Hoffman,⁵ Greenberg likewise sought review, but his petition was "held" pending the determination of the earlier case.⁶ A week after Hoffman was decided, the Court granted certiorari in Greenberg with this notation: "The judgment of the Court of Appeals is vacated and the case is remanded to that court for reconsideration in the light of Hoffman v. United States, * * * decided May 28, 1951."⁷

On such reconsideration, the Third...