United States v. Apfelbaum

Decided March 3, 1980. William Hubbs Rehnquist delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 78-972 · 445 U.S. 115 (1980) · Cited 352 times

Holding

Because proper invocation of the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination allows a witness to remain silent, but not to swear falsely, neither 6002 nor the Fifth Amendment precludes the use of respondent's immunized grand jury testimony at a subsequent prosecution for making false statements, so long as that testimony conforms to otherwise applicable rules of evidence.

The Court’s statement of the holding, from the opinion’s syllabus. The syllabus is prepared by the Reporter of Decisions and is not part of the opinion of the Court — read the official opinion for authority.

How the Justices voted

Decided 9–0.

“Concurring” means agreeing with the outcome; any split shown is the Court’s judgment, not each Justice’s reasoning. Source: the Supreme Court Database (Spaeth et al.), Washington University.

Precedents cited

Supreme Court decisions this opinion relies on, ordered by how often it cites each. Cases in our collection link through; others are named.

• Kastigar v. United States · 406 U.S. 441 (1972)
• Counselman v. Hitchcock · 142 U.S. 547 (1892)
• Brown v. Walker · 161 U.S. 591 (1896)
• Marchetti v. United States · 390 U.S. 39 (1968)
• United States v. Mandujano · 425 U.S. 564 (1976)
• United States v. Kahriger · 345 U.S. 22 (1953)
• United States v. Freed · 401 U.S. 601 (1971)
• Ullmann v. United States · 350 U.S. 422 (1956)
• United States v. Wong · 431 U.S. 174 (1977)
• Murphy v. Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor · 378 U.S. 52 (1964)
• Rogers v. United States · 340 U.S. 367 (1951)
• United States v. Bryan · 339 U.S. 323 (1950)
• New Jersey v. Portash · 440 U.S. 450 (1979)
• Lewis v. United States · 348 U.S. 419 (1955)
• Gardner v. Broderick · 392 U.S. 273 (1968)
• Dunn v. United States · 442 U.S. 100 (1979)
• Uniformed Sanitation Men Ass'n v. Commissioner of Sanitation of New York · 392 U.S. 280 (1968)
• Bryson v. United States · 396 U.S. 64 (1969)
• United States v. Knox · 396 U.S. 77 (1969)
• Smith v. United States · 337 U.S. 137 (1949)

Cited by

Later Supreme Court opinions in our collection that cite this case.

• United States v. Havens · 446 U.S. 620 (1980)
• United States v. Doe · 465 U.S. 605 (1984)
• Brogan v. United States · 522 U.S. 398 (1998)
• Bread Political Action Committee v. Federal Election Commission · 455 U.S. 577 (1982)

Official text

Read the official opinion (U.S. Reports, govinfo.gov)

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Source: Supreme Court of the United States, slip opinions (1980). Citation count from the Free Law Project’s CourtListener bulk data. Data last verified 2026-07-03. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).