Swidler & Berlin v. United States

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Swidler & Berlin v. United States

Argued June 8, 1998
Decided June 25, 1998

Full case name:	Swidler & Berlin and James Hamilton, Petitioners v. United States

Citations:	524 U.S. 399; 118 S. Ct. 2081; 141 L. Ed. 2d 379; 1998 U.S. LEXIS 4214; 66 U.S.L.W. 4538; 49 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. (Callaghan) 1; 40 Fed. R. Serv. 3d (Callaghan) 745; 159 A.L.R. Fed. 729; 98 Cal. Daily Op. Service 4932; 98 Daily Journal DAR 6932; 1998 Colo. J. C.A.R. 3175; 11 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. S 687

Prior history:	On writ of cert. to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit

Holding

Communications between a client and a lawyer are protected by attorney-client privilege even after the client's death.

Court membership

Chief Justice: William Rehnquist
Associate Justices: John Paul Stevens, Sandra Day O'Connor, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, David Souter, Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer

Case opinions

Majority by: Rehnquist
Joined by: Stevens, Kennedy, Souter, Ginsburg, Breyer
Dissent by: O'Connor
Joined by: Scalia, Thomas

Laws applied

Attorney-client privilege

Swidler & Berlin v. United States, 524 U.S. 399 (1998)^[1], was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that the death of an attorney's client does not terminate the attorney-client privilege with respect to records of confidential communications between the attorney and the client that have been subpoenaed in a grand jury proceeding.

The case revolved around efforts of Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr to gain access to notes taken by deputy White House counsel Vince Foster's attorney, concerning a conversation with Foster regarding the White House travel office controversy shortly before Foster's July 1993 suicide.