STUART A. MCKEEVER
v.
WILLIAM P. BARR, ATTORNEY GENERAL
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The Supreme Court declined to hear McKeever's petition challenging a D.C. Circuit decision that held district courts lack authority to release grand jury information except as specifically enumerated in Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 6(e), despite a circuit split on whether courts retain inherent authority to release such material in appropriate cases outside those enumerated exceptions.
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In the decision below, the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit held that a district court could not authorize *598the release of grand jury information except as specifically enumerated in Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 6(e). 920 F.3d 842, 850 (2019). That decision is in conflict with the decisions of several other Circuits, which have indicated that district courts retain inherent authority to release grand jury material in other appropriate cases. See, e.g., Carlson v. United States , 837 F.3d 753, 766-767 (C.A.7 2016) ; In re Craig , 131 F.3d 99, 105 (C.A.2 1997) ; In re Hastings , 735 F.2d 1261, 1271-1272 (C.A.11 1984). It also appears to conflict with the considered views of the Rules Committee. See Advisory Committee Minutes on Crim. Rules 7 (Apr. 22-23 2012), https://www.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/fr_import/criminal-min-04-2012.pdf.
Whether district courts retain authority to release grand jury material outside those situations specifically enumerated in the Rules, or in situations like this, is an important question. It is one I think the Rules Committee both can and should revisit.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By
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Pitch v. United States, 953 F.3d 1226 (11th Cir. 2020)…disclosure of grand jury records outside the text of Rule 6(e). See Carlson, 837 F.3d at 763–66; In re Petition of Craig, 131 F.3d at 103; see also McKeever v. Barr, 920 F.3d 842, 853– 55 (D.C. Cir. 2019) (Srinivasan, J., dissenting), cert. denied, 140 S. Ct. 597 (2020); cf. In re Grand Jury Proceedings, 417 F.3d 18, 26 (1st Cir. 2005) (holding that a district court may exercise its inherent judicial power to impose an obligation of secrecy on a grand jury witness, even though witnesses are not covered by Ru…
Authorities Cited
- In re Petition TO Inspect AND Copy Grand Jury Materials. Appeal of Honorable Alcee L. Hastings, 735 F.2d 1261 (11th Cir. 1984)