Illinois v. Abbott Associates, Inc

• Citation: 103 S.Ct. 1356,460 U.S. 557,75 L.Ed.2d 281
• Decision Date: 29 March 1983
• Docket Number: No. 81-1114,81-1114
• Parties: ILLINOIS, Petitioner v. ABBOTT & ASSOCIATES, INC., et al
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

460 U.S. 557

103 S.Ct. 1356

75 L.Ed.2d 281

ILLINOIS, Petitioner

v ABBOTT & ASSOCIATES, INC., et al.

No. 81-1114.

Argued Nov. 29, 1982.

Decided March 29, 1983.

Syllabus by the Court

Section 4F(a) of the Clayton Act, enacted in 1976, provides that whenever the Attorney General of the United States has brought an action under the federal antitrust laws and has reason to believe that any State attorney general would be entitled to bring an action under the Act based on substantially the same alleged violation, he shall give written notification to that official. Under § 4F(b), in order to assist a State attorney general in evaluating this notice or in bringing an action, the United States Attorney General upon the State attorney general's request must make available to him, "to the extent permitted by law, any investigative files or other materials which are or may be relevant or material to the actual or potential cause of action" under the Act. After the Justice Department had refused the State of Illinois' request for certain grand jury materials involved in an investigation of alleged violations of the federal antitrust laws, the Attorney General of Illinois filed a petition in Federal District Court asserting a right of access to such materials, and contending that § 4F(b) made it unnecessary for him to meet the "particularized need" standard required under Rule 6(e). The District Court denied the petition, and the Court of Appeals affirmed.

Held: Section 4F(b) does not give the State attorney general a special right of access to grand jury materials that is independent of or modifies the limitations imposed by Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 6(e). Pp. 565-573.

(a) Rule 6(e) establishes a "General Rule of Secrecy" by providing that grand jury transcripts shall remain in the custody of the attorney for the Federal Government "unless otherwise ordered by the court in a particular case." One seeking disclosure under Rule 6(e) is normally required to make a showing of a "particularized need" in order to obtain access to grand jury materials. Under that Rule, a State attorney general cannot obtain access to federal grand jury proceedings without federal court approval, and such approval cannot be obtained merely by alleging that the materials are relevant to an actual or potential civil antitrust action. Accordingly, it follows from the language of § 4F(b) mandating disclosure of investigative files and other materials only "to the extent permitted by law," that the Illinois Attorney General is not entitled to the disclosure sought in this case. Pp. 565-568.

(b) Section 4F(b)'s legislative history supports the conclusion that Congress intended the section to recognize the "General Rule of Secrecy" and did not intend to change applicable law concerning grand jury materials. Pp. 568-571.

(c) The Act's general goals of enhancing federal-state cooperation and encouraging more state lawsuits against price fixers are not sufficient to show that Congress intended to change existing rules of law, absent an affirmative expression of intent to do so. Pp.572-573

659 F.2d 800 (7th Cir.), affirmed.

Thomas M. Genovese, Chicago, Ill., for petitioner.

Richard G. Wilkins, Washington, D.C., for respondent United States in support of the petitioner.

Michael B. Nash, Chicago, Ill., for respondents Abbott & Associates, Inc., et al.

Justice STEVENS delivered the opinion of the Court.

The Attorney General of Illinois asserts a statutory right of access to transcripts, documents, and other materials gath- ered or generated by two federal grand juries during their investigations of alleged violations of the federal antitrust laws. He contends that § 4F(b) of the Clayton Act, 15 U.S.C. § 15f(b) (1976), enacted as part of Title III of the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 ("the Act"), makes it unnecessary for him to meet the "particularized need" standard generally required under Rule 6(e) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure in order to obtain access to grand jury materials. Disagreeing with two other Courts of Appeals,¹ the Seventh Circuit rejected this contention. 659 F.2d 800 (CA7 1981). We granted certiorari to resolve the conflict, 455 U.S. 1015, 102 S.Ct. 1708, 72 L.Ed.2d 132 (1982), and now affirm.

I

On January 31, 1980, the State of Illinois filed a petition in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois seeking disclosure of transcripts and documents generated during two federal grand jury investigations of alleged bid-rigging in the construction trades in Illinois. These investigations had resulted in the return of three separate indictments naming 59 defendants.² At the time the State filed its petition, most of the defendants had entered pleas of nolo contendere to the federal charges and one had been found guilty by a jury, but eight defendants were still awaiting trial.³ The Justice Department had refused the state's request for the grand jury materials,⁴ explaining that they could not be disclosed without a court order under Rule 6(e) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure.⁵

The State advised the District Court that it had already initiated civil class actions against 86 defendants, charged in the indictments or identified as unindicted coconspirators, to recover damages based on federal antitrust violations. The State's petition invoked § 4F(b) ⁶ and Rule 6(e) in support of disclosure. It further stated that "the materials requested are extremely relevant and material to Plaintiff's causes; their disclosure will insure and promote efficient and economical utilization of scarce judicial and taxpayers resources, and will also obviate the need for duplicative and redundant discovery, . . . ." App. 13. The Department of Justice supported the State's petition.⁷ Certain defendants in the civil suits and others who had testified before the grand juries intervened to oppose disclosure.

The District Court first considered the State's claim that it had a statutory right of access under § 4F(b) without making any showing of compelling or particularized need. The court concluded that, in response to a § 4F(b) request, the Justice Department was free to disclose documents that were independently acquired by the executive branch and voluntarily presented to the grand jury. But it held that transcripts of grand jury testimony and other materials acquired by the grand jury through the use of its subpoena power were not part of the "investigative files" of the Attorney General of the United States within the meaning of the Act. Moreover, the court found nothing in the legislative history of the Act to suggest that Congress intended either to authorize "unmon- itored disclosure of purely grand jury materials" without a court order under Rule 6(e), or to modify the standard traditionally applied under Rule 6(e) itself.

The District Court then explained why the record as then developed would not justify disclosure under Rule 6(e) without reference to § 4F(b) of the Act. Noting the absence of any special showing of need for access to the grand jury materials, the scope of the material otherwise available to the plaintiffs, and the interests in grand jury secrecy that survived the termination of criminal proceedings,⁸ the District Court denied all of the petitions for disclosure. The denial, however, was without prejudice to renewed requests under Rule 6(e) after discovery efforts created a basis for more narrowly focused requests showing "particularized needs." ⁹

The State of Illinois filed a timely appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. On appeal the State did not contend that its petition had satisfied the showing of particularized need normally required under Rule 6(e). Instead, it presented the issue that had been finally resolved by the District Court's order: whether § 4F(b) of the Act gives the State attorney general a special right of access to grand jury materials that is independent of or that modifies the limitations that were imposed by Rule 6(e) in 1976 when the Act became law. Noting that the plain language of the Act authorizes disclosure only "to the extent permitted by law," and that the legislative history affirmatively indicates Congress's intent to preserve then-existing limitations on access to grand jury materials, the Court of Appeals affirmed. 659 F.2d 800 (CA7 1981).

II

Section 4F(a) of the Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, 15 U.S.C. § 15f(a) (1976), provides that, whenever the Attorney General of the United States has brought an action under the antitrust laws, and he has reason to believe that any State attorney general would be entitled to bring a federal action based substantially on the same alleged violation, he shall promptly give written notification to that official. Under § 4F(b), 15 U.S.C. § 15f(b), in order to assist a State attorney general in evaluating this notice or in bringing an action, the Attorney General of the United States "shall, upon request by such State attorney general, make available to him, to the extent permitted by law, any investigative files or other materials which are or may be relevant or material to the actual or potential cause of action under sections 12 to 27 of this title."

The plain language of § 4F(b) of the Act requires us to evaluate the legal context in which Congress legislated in 1976. The statute expressly mandates disclosure of investigative files and other materials only "to the extent permitted by law." It is therefore appropriate to examine the extent to which, at the time the Act was passed, federal law permitted the Attorney General of the United States to disclose matters occurring before a federal grand jury to a State attorney general.¹⁰

Since 1946 the disclosure of grand jury minutes has been governed by Rule 6(e) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. In so many words, the Rule establishes a "General Rule of Secrecy" which, when knowingly...