[Deschler's Precedents, Volume 4, Chapters 15 - 17]
[Chapter 15. Investigations and Inquiries]
[C. Procedure; Hearings]
[Â§ 12. Sixth Amendment]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


[Page 2367-2368]
 
                               CHAPTER 15
 
                      Investigations and Inquiries
 
                         C. PROCEDURE; HEARINGS
 
Sec. 12. --Sixth Amendment

    Because the language of the sixth amendment stipulates its 
application ``In all criminal prosecutions,'' the amendment does not 
apply directly to congressional investigations. Consequently, a witness 
is not entitled to confront or cross-examine witnesses.(6) 
But

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 6. United States v Fort, 443 F2d 670 (D.C. Cir. 1970), cert. denied, 
        403 U.S. 932 (1971). Fort, however, cites examples of granting 
        a limited right of self-examination (p. 680 and n. 24). See 
        also Hannah v Larche, 363 U.S. 420 (1960), in which the Supreme 
        Court by analogy approved state legislative committee rules 
        which denied the rights of confrontation and cross-examination, 
        in that the court sustained the rules of the Commission on 
        Civil Rights which did not grant these rights in fact-finding 
        investigations.
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[[Page 2368]]

the rules of the House take cognizance of rights included in the sixth 
amendment, including right to counsel and compulsory process. Thus, a 
witness may be accompanied by his own counsel for the purpose of 
advising him of his constitutional rights.(7) Furthermore, 
if a committee determines that evidence or testimony at an 
investigative hearing may tend to defame, degrade, or incriminate any 
person, such person is entitled to request that additional witnesses be 
subpenaed.(8) Where the committee does not determine that 
evidence or testimony may defame, degrade, or incriminate any person, 
the chairman receives and the committee disposes of requests to subpena 
additional witnesses.(9)

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 7. Rule XI clause 28(k), House Rules and Manual Sec. 735(k) (1973). 
        See Sec. 14, infra, for precedents dealing with the right to 
        counsel.
 8. Rule XI clause 28(m), House Rules and Manual Sec. 735(m) (1973). 
        See Sec. 15, infra, for a discussion of the effect of 
        derogatory information.
 9. Rule XI clause 28(n), House Rules and Manual Sec. 735(n) (1973). 
        See Sec. 13.6, infra, for a discussion of adoption of this 
        rule.
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    Although sixth amendment procedural guarantees do not apply to 
investigative proceedings, they apply to the criminal proceedings 
brought as a result of them. A court of appeals reversed a contempt 
conviction on the ground that the question the witness refused to 
answer, whether he had been a ``member of a Communist conspiracy,'' 
lacked the definiteness required by the sixth amendment provision, ``In 
all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right . . . to 
be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation. . . .'' 
(10) A count of an indictment charging that a witness 
committed perjury before a congressional committee when he denied that 
he had ever been ``a sympathizer or any other kind of promoter of 
Communism or Communist interests'' was held void for vagueness under 
the sixth amendment.(11)
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10. O'Connor v United States, 240 F2d 404 (D.C. Cir. 1956).
11. United States v Lattimore, 215 F2d 847 (D.C. Cir. 1954).
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