Constitutional Law Fifth Amendment.

CONSTITUTIONAL
LAW (Fifth
Amendment)

Introduction
The Fifth Amendment of the United States’ Constitution has protected an
individual from being obligatory to disclose any information to the Judge,
police officer, prosecutor or any adjudicators of the court that may issue him
to criminal activity.
McCarthy vs Arndstein
1924
The US Supreme Court has held that a debtor, at the time of
testifying his own bankruptcy trial can refuse the questions, which
might tend to incriminate him.
The court of law has further said that such Fifth Amendment has
privileged such self-incrimination, which may apply:
 Not only to the accused persons when the criminal
hearing consequences from any confession.
 Also applies to the defendants in the civil cases.

The United States vs White 1951
• The SC of the United States has ruled that under the
criminal investigation, a labour union is not allowed to
show its record on the ground of self-incrimination.
• The Apex court has explained that the labour union
cannot take shelter of Bill of Rights as it has been
enacted to protect form such activities of government
towards the individual, and not for an organization.

Griffin vs California
1965 The US Apex court has stated that the Fifth Amendment, that is, right
in contradiction of self-incrimination permits the accused person to
refuse to stand in the witness box during the trial.
 If the accused remains silent, the prosecutor cannot
demand the silence as hiding of something
 The right against self-incrimination can be meaningless
if the accused person has exercised his right, which can
be used against him.