United States v. Doe

Doe (plaintiff), owner of several sole proprietorships, was served with grand jury subpoenas for broad categories of his businesses' records as part of a corruption investigation. He moved to quash the subpoenas; the district court largely granted the motion except for records he was independently required to keep or disclose, and the Third Circuit affirmed, reasoning both that sole-proprietor records deserved the same Fifth Amendment protection as personal papers and that the act of producing the documents would itself be a communicative, incriminating admission of their existence and authenticity. The government appealed, having declined to seek formal use immunity, to the Supreme Court.