United States v. Zolin
Supreme Court
491 U.S. 554 (1989)
The IRS sought to introduce tape recordings of meetings between Church of Scientology (defendant) representatives and its attorney, claiming the tapes fell under the crime-fraud exception to attorney-client privilege, and asked the district court to listen to them in camera to determine the exception's applicability; the IRS offered partial transcripts obtained from a confidential source to help the court decide. The district court refused to listen to the tapes, and the court of appeals affirmed by categorically declining to listen to the tapes or read the transcripts at all; the IRS appealed.
Whether an in camera review of supporting materials is always permissible in a determination of whether the crime-fraud exception to the attorney-client privilege applies.