Trammel v. United States

Supreme Court of the United States

Argued October 29–30, 1979
Decided February 27, 1980

Full case name

Trammel v. United States

Citations

100 S. Ct. 906; 63 L. Ed. 2d 186; 1980 U.S. LEXIS 84; 5 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. (Callaghan) 737

Holding

The Court modified the Hawkins rule so that the witness-spouse alone has a privilege to refuse to testify adversely; the witness may be neither compelled to testify nor foreclosed from testifying.

Court membership

Chief Justice Warren E. Burger

Associate Justices William J. Brennan, Jr. · Potter Stewart Byron White · Thurgood Marshall Harry Blackmun · Lewis F. Powell, Jr. William Rehnquist · John P. Stevens

Case opinions

Majority

Burger, joined by Brennan, White, Marshall, Blackmun, Powell, Rehnquist, Stevens

Concurrence

Stewart

Trammel v. United States, 445 U.S. 40 (1980), is a United States Supreme Court case involving the spousal privilege and its application in the law of evidence. In it, the Court held that the witness-spouse alone has a privilege to refuse to testify adversely; the witness may be neither compelled to testify nor foreclosed from testifying.

In it, the court upheld the conviction of the Petitioner. Prior to presenting his case before the Supreme Court, the Petitioner was convicted of illegally smuggling heroin into the United States and conspiracy to import, based upon the testimony of his wife. The Petitioner then appealed, claiming that the admission of the adverse testimony of his wife, over his objection, contravened prior precedent and therefore constituted reversible error.

In so ruling, the court held that a witness-spouse alone has a privilege to refuse to testify adversely; the witness may be neither compelled to testify nor foreclosed from testifying.

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