Packwood v. Senate Select Comm. On Ethics, 510 U.S. 1319 (1994)

ON APPLICATION FOR STAY

Syllabus

Senator Bob Packwood’s application for a stay pending appeal to the Court of Appeals of a District Court decision enforcing a subpoena duces tecum issued by respondent Senate Select Committee on Ethics is denied. Because this matter is pending before the Court of Appeals and because that court denied applicant’s motion for a stay, he has an especially heavy burden. Fargo Women’s Health Organization v. Schafer, 507 U.S. 1013, 1014. Resolution of two of his claims -- that the subpoena is overly broad and that it violates his Fourth Amendment right to privacy -- would entail fact-bound determinations, and thus it is unlikely that those claims raise issues on which four Members of this Court would grant certiorari. Moreover, the Court’s recent denial of a petition for certiorari raising the precise issue made in applicant’s third claim -- that the subpoena violates his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination under Boyd v. United States, 116 U.S. 616 -- demonstrates quite clearly the unlikelihood that four Justices would vote to grant review on this issue.