United States v. Hubbell, 530 U.S. 27, 26 (2000)

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52

UNITED STATES v. HUBBELL

Thomas, J., concurring

disclosures or to give testimony which will tend to criminate him or subject him to fines, penalties or forfeitures").

Against this common-law backdrop, the privilege against self-incrimination was enshrined in the Virginia Declaration of Rights in 1776. See Moglen, The Privilege in British North America: The Colonial Period to the Fifth Amendment, in The Privilege against Self-Incrimination: Its Origins and Development 133-134 (R. Helmholz et al. eds. 1997). That document provided that no one may "be compelled to give evidence against himself." Virginia Declaration of Rights § 8 (1776), in 1 The Bill of Rights: A Documentary History 235 (B. Schwartz ed. 1971). Following Virginia's lead, seven of the other original States included specific provisions in their Constitutions granting a right against compulsion "to give evidence" or "to furnish evidence." See Pennsylvania Declaration of Rights, Art. IX (1776) ("give"), id., at 265; Delaware Declaration of Rights § 15 (1776) ("give"), id., at 278; Maryland Declaration of Rights, Art. XX (1776) ("give"), id., at 282; North Carolina Declaration of Rights, Art. VII (1776) ("give"), id., at 287; Vermont Declaration of Rights, Ch. I, Art. X (1777) ("give"), id., at 323; Massachusetts Declaration of Rights, Pt. 1, Art. XII (1780) ("furnish"), id., at 342; New Hampshire Bill of Rights, Art. XV (1783) ("furnish"), id., at 377. And during ratification of the Federal Constitution, the four States that proposed bills of rights put forward draft proposals employing similar wording for a federal constitutional provision guaranteeing the right against compelled self-incrimination. Each of the proposals broadly sought to protect a citizen from "be[ing] compelled to give evidence against himself." Virginia Proposal (June 27, 1788), 2 id., at 841; New York Proposed Amendments (July 26, 1788), id., at 913; North Carolina Proposed Declaration of Rights (Aug. 1, 1788), id., at 967; Rhode Island Proposal (May 29, 1790) (same suggestion made following the drafting of the Fifth Amendment), in N. Cogan, The Complete Bill of Rights 327 (1997). See also,

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