678
Opinion of the Court
In 1927 (prior to our decision in Murdock), in a case involving a request for habeas relief from a deportation order, we declined to resolve whether "the Fifth Amendment guarantees immunity from self-incrimination under state statutes." United States ex rel. Vajtauer v. Commissioner of Immigration, 273 U. S. 103, 113 (1927). Although we found that the witness had waived his claim to the privilege, our decision might be read to suggest that there was some tension between the reasoning of two of the cases discussed above, Hale v. Henkel and Brown v. Walker, and the analyses contained in two others, United States v. Saline Bank of Va., 1 Pet. 100 (1828), and Ballmann v. Fagin, 200 U. S. 186 (1906). 273 U. S., at 113. These last two cases have in fact been cited here for the claim that prior to due process incorporation, the privilege could be asserted in a federal proceeding based on fear of prosecution by a State.6 Saline Bank and Ballmann are not, however, inconsistent with Murdock.
In Saline Bank, we permitted the defendants to refuse discovery sought by the United States in federal court, where the defendants claimed that their responses would result in incrimination under the laws of Virginia. "The rule clearly is, that a party is not bound to make any discovery which would expose him to penalties, and this case falls within it." 1 Pet., at 104. But, for all the sweep of this statement, the opinion makes no mention of the Fifth Amendment, and in Hale v. Henkel, we explained that "the prosecution [in Saline Bank] was under a state law which imposed the penalty, and . . . the Federal court was simply
6 The language in Vajtauer that has been cited in support of this suggestion says only that our conclusion that the witness waived his claim of privilege "makes it unnecessary for us to consider the extent to which the Fifth Amendment guarantees immunity from self-incrimination under state statutes or whether this case is to be controlled by Hale v. Henkel, 201 U. S. 43; Brown v. Walker, 161 U. S. 591, 608; compare United States v. Saline Bank, 1 Pet. 100; Ballmann v. Fagin, 200 U. S. 186, 195." 273 U. S., at 113.
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