The Constitutional Privilege Against Self-Incrimination
| Author | Telford Taylor |
| Published date | 01 July 1955 |
| DOI | 10.1177/000271625530000117 |
| Date | 01 July 1955 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
114
The
Constitutional
Privilege
Against
Self-Incrimination
By
TELFORD
TAYLOR
HE
preceding
article
by
President
Taylor
of
Sarah
Lawrence
College
covers
very
fully
and
clearly
the
ques-
tion
of
the
impact
of
the
Fifth
Amend-
ment
in
the
academic
world.
University
presidents
and
professors,
however,
need
not
feel
lonely
in
this
field,
for
in
my
own
profession
there
is
now
a
strong
movement
in
some
quarters
to
disbar
all
lawyers
who
plead
the
Fifth
Amend-
ment.
Indeed
in
the
State
of
Florida
it
has
already
been
held
that
a
lawyer
who
pleads
the
Fifth
Amendment
should
be
disbarred.
I
am
pleased
to
say
that
in
California,
whether
because
of
greater
common
sense
or
of
jealous
rivalry
with
Florida,
they
have
come
to
the
other
conclusion
and
have
held
that
this
is
not
in
itself
grounds
for
disbarment.
But
this
problem
as
to
what
is
going
to
happen
to
somebody
who
pleads
the
Fifth
Amendment
is
not
by
any
means
restricted
to
the
learned
professions.
A
few
days
ago
I
saw
in
the
newspapers
that
a
secondhand
piano
dealer
in
the
District
of
Columbia
who
had
pleaded
the
Fifth
Amendment
before
a
meeting
of
the
House
Un-American
Activities
Committee had
been
denied
a
renewal
of
his
license
to
deal
in
secondhand
mer-
chandise.
Things
are
no
better
in
New
York
State.
Recently
the
State
Senate
unan-
imously
passed
a
bill
which
would
au-
thorize
all
employers
to
discharge
all
employees
who
plead
the
Fifth
Amend-
ment-an
authorization
not
restricted
to
defense
work
or
government
work
or
any
other
especially
sensitive
areas.
You
can
see,
then,
that
when
we
are
talking
about
the
Fifth
Amendment
it
is
no
abstract
or
dry
legal
question
that
we
are
discussing.
This
is
an
intensely
human
problem
which
is
now
having
a
broad
impact
on
American
life.
Since
that
is
the
nature
of
this
ques-
tion,
I
do
not
propose
to
deliver
myself
of
a
sort
of
law
school
type
of
lecture,
carefully
analyzing
all
the
fine
legal
points
that
could
be
brought
up
about
the
use
of
the
Fifth
Amendment.
What
I
want
to
try
to
do
is
to
illuminate
how
we
ought
to
view
the
Fifth
Amendment
in
the
context
of
the
theme
of
internal
security
and
civil
rights.
Before
we
can
do
that,
before
we
can
approach
this
question
of
what
infer-
ences
we
may
draw
from
the
use
of
the
Fifth
Amendment,
we
have
to
have
some
common
ground,
some
common
under-
standing
of
what
the
nature
and
purpose
of
this
amendment
is.
Of
course,
when
I
say
Fifth
Amendment
I
mean
that
part
of
it
which
contains
the
privilege
against
self-incrimination,
the actual
words
being,
......nor
shall
any
per-
son...
be
compelled
in
any
criminal
case
to
be
a
witness
against
him-
self....&dquo;
FOR
THE
INNOCENT
OR
THE
GUILTY?
It
is
a
misunderstanding
about
the
basic
purpose
of
this
provision
of
the
Constitution
that
lies
at
the
root
of
a
great
deal
of
the
angry
confusion
now
prevalent
in
the
public
mind.
Indeed
we
encounter
violent
disagreement
at
the
very
threshold
of
the
question
when
we
ask
for
whose
benefit
this
provision
is
intended:
Is
it
for
the
benefit
of
the
innocent
or
for
the
benefit
of
the
guilty?
The
old
British
judges
who
first
called
this
privilege
into
being
said
it
was
for
the
benefit
of
the
innocent,
and
Elmer
Davis
also
in
one
of
his
recent
books
speaks
of
it
as
being
for
the
benefit
of
To continue reading
Request your trial