United States v. Balsys, 524 U.S. 666, 37 (1998)

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702

UNITED STATES v. BALSYS

Breyer, J., dissenting

As a restraint on compelling a person to bear witness against himself, the Amendment ordinarily should command the respect of United States interrogators, whether the prosecution reasonably feared by the examinee is domestic or foreign. Cf. DKT Memorial Fund Ltd. v. Agency for International Development, 887 F. 2d 275, 307-308 (CADC 1989) (R. B. Ginsburg, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part) ("just as our flag carries its message . . . both at home and abroad, so does our Constitution and the values it expresses") (citation and internal quotation marks omitted); United States v. Tiede, 86 F. R. D. 227 (U. S. Court for Berlin 1979) (foreign national accused of hijacking Polish aircraft abroad was tried under German substantive law in Berlin in a court created by United States; U. S. court held foreign national entitled to jury trial as a matter of constitutional right). On this understanding of the "fundamental decenc[y]" the Fifth Amendment embodies, "its expression of our view of civilized governmental conduct," Griswold, supra, at 8, 9, I join Justice BreyerTMs dissenting opinion.

Justice Breyer, with whom Justice Ginsburg joins, dissenting.

Were Aloyzas Balsys to face even a theoretical possibility that his testimony could lead a State to prosecute him for murder, the Fifth Amendment would prohibit the Federal Government from compelling that testimony. The Court concludes, however, that the Fifth Amendment does not prohibit compulsion here because Balsys faces a real and substantial danger of prosecution not, say, by California, but by a foreign nation. The Fifth Amendment, however, provides that "[n]o person . . . shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself." U. S. Const., Amdt. 5 (emphasis added). This Court has not read the words "any criminal case" to limit application of the Clause to only federal criminal cases. See Murphy v. Waterfront Comm'n of N. Y. Harbor, 378 U. S. 52 (1964). That precedent, as well

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