There “simply is no situation” in which a corporation can avail itself of the Fifth Amendment privilege. In recently holding that a corporation consisting of only one person could not rely on the “act of production” doctrine to refuse to produce allegedly incriminating documents, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in In re Grand Jury Subpoena Issued June 18, 2009, put to rest any doubt as to the conclusiveness of this statement.
The Fifth Amendment protects individuals from being “compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself.” Thus, individuals need not, and often do not, testify. In addition, courts have construed the Fifth Amendment as protecting individuals from producing certain documents pursuant to the “act of production doctrine.” With regard to individuals, then, the Fifth Amendment provides powerful protections. Since 1906, however, the U.S. Supreme Court has held that the Fifth Amendment does not apply to corporations.
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