In Re Maria T. Cueto and Raisa Nemikin, Grand Jurywitnesses, Appellants, 554 F.2d 14 (2d Cir. 1977)

Maria T. Cueto and Raisa Nemikin appeal from orders entered on February 26, 1977, and March 5, 1977, respectively, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, confining them for the term of the Grand Jury, or until such time as they are willing to testify before the Grand Jury. The orders were entered pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1826(a), which permits the confinement of a witness who "refuses without just cause shown to comply with an order of the court to testify." Appellants admit that they refused to testify, but they claim that their refusal was justified by a privilege because they are lay ministers of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Their claims were rejected first by the Honorable Lawrence W. Pierce, who denied motions to quash the subpoenas with which appellants had been served,¹  and again by the Honorable Marvin E. Frankel, who found appellants in civil contempt and ordered their confinement. Both appellants filed notices of appeal, and the appeals have been consolidated. In order to insure compliance with the thirty-day requirement of 28 U.S.C. § 1826(b), this Court filed its decision affirming the orders below on March 28, 1977. The purpose of this per curiam opinion is to state briefly the reasons for our decision.

It is a fundamental rule of law that the public has a right to every person's evidence. There are a small number of constitutional, common-law and statutory exceptions to that general rule, but they have been neither "lightly created nor expansively construed, for they are in derogation of the search for truth." United States v. Nixon, 418 U.S. 683, 710, 94 S. Ct. 3090, 3108, 41 L. Ed. 2d 1039 (1974). Here, the information sought by the Grand Jury does not fall within the scope of any recognized privilege,²  and appellants' status as lay ministers gives them no right to be treated differently from other citizens.³ 

The orders are affirmed.