The US Supreme Court [official website] on Tuesday dismissed [text PDF] the case of City of Hays, Kansas v. Vogt [SCOTUSblog materials], deciding that the writ of certiorari was “improvidently granted.”

At issue [SCOTUSblog report] was whether a defendant’s Fifth Amendment rights are violated when statements are admitted into evidence at a probable cause hearing even though they are not admitted during the trial. The respondent, a police officer, claimed [brief, PDF] the city pressured him into making incriminating statements regarding a knife he had appropriated from work and then used the statements to bring a criminal case against him. The court of appeals held that the Fifth Amendment guarantees protections against self-incrimination not just for criminal trials but for probable cause hearings as well.

The city, as petitioners, said [reply, PDF] the case was incorrectly decided because “‘Mere compulsion’ does not violate the self-incrimination clause.”

Both sides presented oral arguments [JURIST report] in February.

The court gave no explanation for its decision.

Justice Neil Gorsuch took no part in the decision.