OPINION OF INDIVIDUAL JUSTICE
IN CHAMBERS
on application for stay
No. A-53 (98-93). Decided July 17, 1998
The Secretary of the Treasury's application to stay the Court of Appeals' decision to enforce subpoenas pending a decision on certiorari is denied. He has not demonstrated that the interim enforcement of subpoenas requiring the President's protectors to testify before a federal grand jury investigating the President will cause irreparable harm. Nor has he shown a likelihood that this Court, assuming it granted certiorari and heard the case, would reverse the Court of Appeals' judgment.
Chief Justice Rehnquist, Circuit Justice.
This case is before me as Circuit Justice on the application for stay submitted by the Solicitor General, on behalf of the Secretary of the Treasury Robert E. Rubin. Because several of my colleagues are out of the country, I have decided to rule on the matter myself rather than refer it to the Conference.
An applicant for stay first must show irreparable harm if a stay is denied. In my view, the applicant has not demonstrated that denying a stay and enforcing the subpoenas pending a decision on certiorari would cause irreparable harm. The Secretary identifies two injuries that would result from denying a stay: any privileged information would be lost forever and the important interests that the "protective function privilege" protects would be destroyed. I cannot say that any harm caused by the interim enforcement of the subpoenas will be irreparable. If the Secretary's claim
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