66
Stevens, J., dissenting
cal restraints on the grand jury. Needless to say, the Court's reasoning is unpersuasive.
Although the grand jury has not been "textually assigned" to "any of the branches described in the first three Articles" of the Constitution, ante, at 47, it is not an autonomous body completely beyond the reach of the other branches. Throughout its life, from the moment it is convened until it is discharged, the grand jury is subject to the control of the court. As Judge Learned Hand recognized over 60 years ago, "a grand jury is neither an officer nor an agent of the United States, but a part of the court." Falter v. United States, 23 F. 2d 420, 425 (CA2), cert. denied, 277 U. S. 590 (1928). This Court has similarly characterized the grand jury:
"A grand jury is clothed with great independence in many areas, but it remains an appendage of the court, powerless to perform its investigative function without the court's aid, because powerless itself to compel the testimony of witnesses. It is the court's process which summons the witness to attend and give testimony, and it is the court which must compel a witness to testify if, after appearing, he refuses to do so." Brown v. United States, 359 U. S. 41, 49 (1959).
See also Blair v. United States, 250 U. S. 273, 280 (1919) ("At the foundation of our Federal Government the inquisitorial function of the grand jury and the compulsion of witnesses were recognized as incidents of the judicial power of the United States"); United States v. Calandra, 414 U. S. 338, 346, and n. 4 (1974).
This Court has, of course, long recognized that the grand jury has wide latitude to investigate violations of federal law as it deems appropriate and need not obtain permission from either the court or the prosecutor. See, e. g., id., at 343; Costello v. United States, 350 U. S. 359, 362 (1956); Hale v. Henkel, 201 U. S. 43, 65 (1906). Correspondingly, we have acknowledged that "its operation generally is unrestrained
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