772
Opinion of Thomas, J.
protected from use against the speaker in any "criminal case."
Rules designed to safeguard a constitutional right, however, do not extend the scope of the constitutional right itself, just as violations of judicially crafted prophylactic rules do not violate the constitutional rights of any person. As we explained, we have allowed the Fifth Amendment privilege to be asserted by witnesses in noncriminal cases in order to safeguard the core constitutional right defined by the Self-Incrimination Clause—the right not to be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against oneself. 3 We
have likewise established the Miranda exclusionary rule as a prophylactic measure to prevent violations of the right protected by the text of the Self-Incrimination Clause—the admission into evidence in a criminal case of confessions obtained through coercive custodial questioning. See Warren v. Lincoln, 864 F. 2d 1436, 1442 (CA8 1989) (alleged Miranda violation not actionable under § 1983); Giuffre v. Bissell, 31 F. 3d 1241, 1256 (CA3 1994) (same); Bennett v. Passic, 545 F. 2d 1260, 1263 (CA10 1976) (same); see also New York v. Quarles, 467 U. S. 649, 686 (1984) (Marshall, J., dissenting) ("All the Fifth Amendment forbids is the introduction of coerced statements at trial"). Accordingly, Chavez's failure to read Miranda warnings to Martinez did not violate Martinez's constitutional rights and cannot be grounds for a § 1983 action. See Connecticut v. Barrett, 479 U. S. 523, 528 (1987) (Miranda's warning requirement is "not itself required by the Fifth Amendmen[t] . . . but is instead justified only by reference to its prophylactic purpose"); Tucker, supra, at 444 (Miranda's safeguards "were not themselves rights protected by the Constitution but were instead measures to insure that the right against compulsory self-incrimination was protected"). And the absence of a "criminal case" in which
3 That the privilege is a prophylactic one does not alter our penalty cases jurisprudence, which allows such privilege to be asserted prior to, and outside of, criminal proceedings.
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