Cite as: 524 U. S. 666 (1998)
Opinion of the Court
Part IV, infra, at its heart lies the principle that the courts of a government from which a witness may reasonably fear prosecution may not in fairness compel the witness to furnish testimonial evidence that may be used to prove his guilt. After Murphy, the immunity option open to the Executive Branch could be exercised only on the understanding that the state and federal jurisdictions were as one, with a federally mandated exclusionary rule filling the space between the limits of state immunity statutes and the scope of the privilege.8 As so understood, Murphy stands at odds with Balsys's claim.
There is, however, a competing rationale in Murphy, investing the Clause with a more expansive promise. The Murphy majority opened the door to this view by rejecting this Court's previous understanding of the English common-law evidentiary privilege against compelled self-incrimination, which could have informed the Framers' understanding of the Fifth Amendment privilege. See, e. g., Murphy, 378 U. S., at 67 (rejecting Murdock's analysis of the scope of the privilege under English common law). Having removed what it saw as an unjustified, historically derived
8 Of course, the judicial exclusion of compelled testimony functions as a fail-safe to ensure that compelled testimony is not admitted in a criminal proceeding. The general rule requires a grant of immunity prior to the compelling of any testimony. We have said that the prediction that a court in a future criminal prosecution would be obligated to protect against the evidentiary use of compelled testimony is not enough to satisfy the privilege against compelled self-incrimination. Pillsbury Co. v. Conboy, 459 U. S. 248, 261 (1983). The suggestion that a witness should rely on a subsequent motion to suppress rather than a prior grant of immunity "would [not] afford adequate protection. Without something more, [the witness] would be compelled to surrender the very protection which the privilege is designed to guarantee." Maness v. Meyers, 419 U. S. 449, 462 (1975) (footnote and internal quotation marks omitted). This general rule ensures that we do not "let the cat out with no assurance whatever of putting it back," id., at 463 (internal quotation marks omitted), and leaves the decision whether to grant immunity to the Executive in accord with congressional policy, see Pillsbury, supra, at 262.
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