New Dimensions to the Privilege against Self-Incrimination: The Supreme Court and the Fifth Amendment

H ISTORICALLY the Supreme Court of the United States has per- mitted individuals to assert the privilege against self-incrimination only within defined circumstances.The one judicial test is: will the answers incriminate directly or provide a link in the chain of evidence?This test has made it possible for the Court to identify those instances in which the privilege could not be asserted-situations in which there is no real danger that answers will lead to criminal prosecution.'Since the emphasis is on whether a criminal proceeding is a distinct possibility, the Court has decided that the privilege may not be asserted when a statute of limitations bars prosecution, or when the ground for refusing to answer is that the * The author earned a B. A. in 1948, a B.S. in 1950, an M.A. in 1950 at the University of Minnesota and a Ph.D. in 1960 at U.