What is the test for a witness to refuse to answer a subpoena?

But what a judge cannot do is to allow a witness to refuse to testify because he would prefer not to answer a question. The public's interest in full disclosure and the fair administration of justice overrides concerns that testimony might be inconvenient, burdensome, or harmful to a witness's social or economic status. United States v. Calandra, 414 U.S. 338, 345 (1974). Moreover, a "subpoena has never

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been treated as an invitation to a game of hare and hounds, in which the witness must testify only if cornered at the end of the chase." United States v. Bryan, 339 U.S. 323, 331 (1950). Witnesses cannot refuse to answer questions merely because they choose not tothere is no opt-out box on a subpoena. To hold otherwise would make "the great power of testimonial compulsion, so necessary to the effective functioning of courts and legislatures," a nullity. Id. Thus, a trial judge faced with uncooperative witnesses cannot endorse recalcitrance by saying, "there's not much I can do," "I can't compel him to answer if he's not going to answer," and "I don't know what to say."