Can a witness be disciplined for refusing to respond to questions posed by the Commissioner of Public Prosecutions?
The following excerpt is from Board of Ed. of City of New York v. Allen, 160 N.E.2d 60, 188 N.Y.S.2d 515, 6 N.Y.2d 127 (N.Y. 1959):
These cases clearly indicate that the Commissioner's determination that the refusal to answer the questions posed can form no basis for disciplinary action is purely arbitrary. There may be, it is true, other and better ways of attaining the information required by the board, but if the board does not exceed the bounds of reasonableness and clearly here it did not it is an arbitrary act on the part of the Commissioner to proscribe disciplinary action for refusal to respond to this line of questioning. 'A witness, of course, cannot 'pick and choose' the questions to which an answer will be given.' Yates v. United States, 355 U.S. 66, 73, 78 S.Ct. 128, 133, supra.
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