William and Carolyn Bicket, the National Commodity and Barter Association (NCBA), and the National Commodity Exchange (NCE) appeal from the district court’s denial of their motion to quash a grand jury subpoena duces tecum issued to Les Roberts of Roberts & Roberts Brokerage, Inc. Because we conclude that neither the first nor the fourth amendment required the district court to quash the subpoena, we affirm.
I.
NCBA is an association dedicated to limited government, privacy in personal and financial affairs, and the protection of private property. NCBA advocates home education of children, the abolition of the Internal Revenue Service, and a return to the gold standard. It disputes the constitutionality of the Federal Reserve System and many of the federal administrative agencies. NCBA publishes books and newsletters alerting its members to the dangers posed by environmental pollution, unsound currency, and the growth of the federal government.
NCBA also provides its members with various financial services. For example, members can participate in a plan under which NCBA pays legal expenses for IRS audits and criminal tax prosecutions. Most importantly for purposes of this appeal, NCBA operates, through its wing NCE, a service through which members can purchase precious metals and pay bills with a minimum of recordkeeping. Under this plan, appellant William Bicket, the Atlanta area representative of NCBA, receives checks from members to be deposited in an “account” created for them by NCBA. Bicket collects the checks and forwards them to NCBA with forms in the nature of deposit slips. NCBA then disburses funds according to its members’ instructions, without any indication that the disbursements are paid from any particular member’s account.
Because its members have an aversion to paper currency, NCBA also arranges for their purchase of precious metals. Although NCBA usually writes checks for the commodities from the accounts that it operates for its members, in the transactions directly involved here, Bicket deviated from the customary plan. Bicket sent letters and checks bearing the members’ names directly to Roberts & Roberts Brokerage, Inc., of Pensacola, Florida and instructed that brokerage firm to ship gold and silver directly to NCBA members. Roberts & Roberts thus holds records that identify the names and addresses of NCBA members.
The financial system operated by NCBA obviously provides significant opportunities for the evasion of federal tax laws, especially requirements for the reporting of taxable income. On September 15, 1986, a federal grand jury investigating possible criminal violations of the tax laws issued a subpoena duces tecum to Les Roberts, of Roberts & Roberts Brokerage, commanding the production of all records from January 1, 1983 to September 16, 1986 relating to NCBA, NCE, the Bickets, nine other individuals, and a trust. The Bickets, NCBA, and NCE moved in the district court to have the subpoena quashed, arguing that compliance would violate their first amendment right to freedom of expressive association. The movants also argued that the subpoena should be quashed as the fruit of an illegal search and seizure of NCBA’s offices in Colorado. The district court denied the motion to quash,
II.
We consider first the appellants' fourth amendment argument. According to appellants, the district court should have quashed the subpoena because it was the
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“fruit of the poisonous tree.” In this case, the poisonous tree is a search and seizure at NCBA’s Colorado offices that was held unconstitutional by the Tenth Circuit.
See Voss v. Bergsgaard,
NCBA relies heavily on the venerable case of
Silverthome Lumber Co. v. United States,
The Supreme Court reexamined
Silverthorne Lumber
in
United States v. Calandra,
The
Calandra
Court considered the application of
Silverthome Lumber
in a lengthy footnote.
Id.
at 352 n. 8,
In this case, unlike
Calandra,
a court already has determined that the “tree” was “poisonous.”
See Voss v. Bergsgaard,
Moreover, delay is not the only factor counseling against application of the exclusionary rule to grand jury proceedings. In
Calandra,
the Supreme Court made clear that “the [exclusionary] rule’s prime purpose is to deter future unlawful police conduct and thereby effectuate the guarantee of the Fourth Amendment.”
Because we conclude that the district court could not invoke the exclusionary rule to quash the subpoena on fourth amendment grounds, we need not consider the district court’s conclusion that the government would have obtained the information underlying the subpoena from independent sources.
III.
Appellants argue that enforcement of the subpoena issued to Roberts would violate their freedom of expressive association. Although we ultimately conclude that the first amendment does not bar enforcement of the subpoena, we must address what the first amendment requires the government to demonstrate in cases such as this one.
A.
In
NAACP v. Alabama ex rel. Patterson,
The United States Supreme Court reversed. The Court first concluded that “freedom to engage in association for the advancement of beliefs and ideas is an inseparable aspect of the ‘liberty’ assured by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.”
Id.
at 460,
NAACP v. Alabama
suggested that when the compelled disclosure of affiliation with groups engaged in advocacy would
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impair the exercise of freedom of association, such disclosure could be ordered only if the government demonstrated that the requested information had a “substantial bearing” on a compelling governmental interest.
Id.
at 464,
[R]egardless of the label applied, be it “nexus,” “foundation,” or whatever ... it is an essential prerequisite to the validity of an investigation which intrudes into the area of constitutionally protected rights of speech, press, association and petition that the State convincingly show a substantial relation between the information sought and a subject of overriding and compelling state interest.
Gibson,
The government argues, however, that appellants may not invoke the protection of
NAACP v. Alabama
and its progeny because the records that would reveal NCBA’s membership are held by Roberts, not NCBA or its members. In so arguing, the government urges us to adopt the reasoning advanced by Judge Wilkey in
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press v. American Telephone & Telegraph Co.,
That portion of Judge Wilkey’s opinion was not joined by any other judge of the D.C. Circuit, and to our knowledge the holding that it proposed has never been adopted by the Supreme Court or any of the federal courts of appeals.
See, e.g., In re Grand Jury Subpoena to First National Bank,
The Supreme Court summarily affirmed the judgment of the three-judge district court.
Roberts v. Pollard,
The Supreme Court would hardly have affirmed
Pollard
if the first amendment offers no greater protection of privacy than the fourth and fifth amendments. By the time of the
Pollard
decision, the law — at least arguably — already was established that an individual has no claim under the fourth amendment to resist the production of business records held by a third party.
See United States v. Miller,
B.
Having determined the law that governs this area, we turn to its application to this appeal. Initially we must consider whether the appellants are engaged in the type of “expressive association” entitled to the protection of the first amendment. The government argues that NCBA engages in no protected activity at all but merely provides its members with banking services designed to leave no record of the financial transactions. Appellants contend that NCBA engages in political activity of the sort implicating the core principles of the first amendment. Indeed, the record reflects that NCBA publishes literature and sponsors seminars designed to alert the public to the dangers of the purportedly unconstitutional income tax and Federal Reserve System. 4
At the very least, NCBA exists both to promote its members’ political opinions and to provide the members with financial services not warranting the protection of the first amendment. The case law provides little specific guidance as to the level of protection afforded such organizations with dual or multiple purposes. The cases have usually involved either those organizations whose very heart and soul are protected political activity,
see, e.g., Tashjian v. Republican Party,
— U.S. —,
A review of the Supreme Court’s opinion in
Roberts v. United States Jaycees
convinces us that the approach actually taken by the Court in that case was one that can be applied to every organization: The Court simply considered the effect of the challenged state action on the Jaycees’ freedom of expressive association.
See United States Jaycees,
C.
In applying the test implicit in
United States Jaycees
to NCBA, we encounter one further difficulty: It is unclear from the case law precisely what factual showing, if any, NCBA must make to establish that its freedom of association would be impinged by enforcement of the subpoena. In
Buckley v. Valeo,
Another passage of
Buckley,
however, suggests that the “reasonable probability” test is not applicable to appellants. In footnote 83, the Supreme Court stated, “Nor is this a case comparable to
Pollard v. Roberts
..., in which an Arkansas prosecuting attorney sought to obtain, by a subpoena
duces tecum,
the records of a checking account (including the names of individual contributors) established by a specific party, the Republican Party of Arkansas.”
Buckley,
In the instant case, we need not decide the precise evidentiary standard applicable to NCBA’s motion to quash. Even assuming
arguendo
that NCBA can demonstrate an infringement of its freedom of association, the government nonetheless has established a justification for this infringement. “The right to associate for expressive purposes is not ... absolute.”
Roberts v. United States Jaycees,
There is no doubt that this case implicates a compelling governmental interest. The government is investigating possible criminal violations of the tax laws and suggests that individuals may be using the structure of NCBA’s financial system to evade requirements for reporting taxable income. A good-faith criminal investigation into possible evasion of reporting requirements through the use of a private banking system that keeps no records is a compelling interest. “No power is more basic to the ultimate purpose and function of government than is the power to tax.”
Bates v. City of Little Rock,
We consider, finally, whether the government has established a “substantial rela *1237 tion” between the information sought and the compelling interest. We have examined the records under seal forwarded to us from the district court, and we conclude that the government has made this showing.
Accordingly, the order of the district court denying appellants’ motion to quash is AFFIRMED.
Notes
.
See generally United States v. Stauffer Chemical Co.,
.
See Board of Directors v. Rotary Club,
— U.S. —,
. In NAACP v. Alabama, the Supreme Court concluded that the NAACP’s membership lists did not have a substantial bearing on Alabama’s asserted interest of registering foreign corporations transacting intrastate business. The Supreme Court could discern no nexus between the state interest and the list of NAACP’s members, as opposed to the names of its chief officers, or information about its business address.
. The Tenth Circuit has concluded that NCBA engages in protected activity.
In re Grand Jury Subpoena to First National Bank,
. In her concurring opinion in
Roberts v. United States Jaycees,
Justice O’Connor suggested that "an association should be characterized as commercial, and therefore subject to rationally related state regulation of its membership and other associational activities, when, and only when, the association’s activities are not
predominantly
of the type protected by the First Amendment. It is only when the association is predominantly engaged in protected expression that state regulation of its membership will necessarily affect, change, dilute, or silence one collective voice that would otherwise be heard.’’
United States Jaycees,
. Similarly, in
In re Grand Jury Subpoena to First National Bank,
. In
Pollard,
the prosecuting attorney sought the checking account records for an investigation into suspected "vote buying" on behalf of Republican candidates in violation of Arkansas election laws.
