John Marshall Harlan II

“ The very formality of the Commission's investigatory process may lend greater credibility and a greater aura of official sanction to the testimony given before it and to its findings. Although in this respect the Commission is not different from the federal agencies discussed above, I am not ready to say that the collateral consequences of government-sanctioned opprobrium may not under some circumstances entitle a person to some right, consistent with the Commission's efficient performance of its investigatory duties, to have his public say in rebuttal. ”

“ If the prosecutor believes that an individual has committed a crime, he files an information or seeks a grand jury indictment. When the Commission reaches a similar conclusion, it turns its intelligence over to a prosecutor so that he may initiate the formal criminal process.
For obvious reasons, it has not been seriously suggested that a 'person under investigation' by a district attorney has any of the 'adjudicative' constitutional rights at the investigative stage. [4] These rights attach only after formal proceedings have been initiated. ”

“ The Commission has no authority to adjudicate a person's guilt or innocence, and its recommendations and findings have no legal consequences whatsoever. Id., § 23:880.7 A.
The Commission thus bears close resemblance to certain federal administrative agencies, infra, at 440 and this page, and to the offices of prosecuting attorneys. These agencies have one salient feature in common, which distinguishes them from those designed simply to 'expose.' None of them is the final arbiter of anyone's guilt or innocence. ”