Olmstead v. United States, 277
U.S. 438 (1928) (USSC+)
Syllabus
1. Use in evidence in a criminal trial in a
federal court of an incriminating telephone conversation voluntarily conducted by the
accused and secretly overheard from a tapped wire by a government officer does not compel
the accused to be a witness against himself in violation of the Fifth Amendment. P. 462.
2. Evidence of a conspiracy to violate the Prohibition Act was
obtained by government officers by secretly tapping the lines of a telephone company
connected with the chief office and some of the residences of the conspirators, and thus
clandestinely overhearing and recording their telephonic conversations concerning the
conspiracy and in aid of its execution. The tapping connections were made in the basement
of a large office building and on public streets, and no trespass was committed upon any
property of the defendants. Held, that the obtaining of the evidence and its use at
the trial did not violate the Fourth Amendment. Pp. 457-466.
3. The principle of liberal construction applied to the Amendment to
effect its purpose in the interest of liberty will not justify enlarging it beyond the
possible practical meaning of "persons, houses, papers, and effects," or so
applying "searches and seizures" as to forbid hearing or sight. P. 465.
4. The policy of protecting the secrecy of telephone messages by
making them, when intercepted, inadmissible as evidence in federal criminal trials may be
adopted by Congress through legislation, but it is not for the courts to adopt it by
attributing an enlarged and unusual meaning to the Fourth Amendment. P. 465.
5. A provision in an order granting certiorari limiting the review
to a single specific question does not deprive the Court of jurisdiction to decide other
questions presented by the record. P. 466.
6. The common law of evidence having prevailed in
the State of Washington since a time antedating her transformation from a [p*439] Territory to
a State, those rule apply in the trials of criminal cases in the federal courts sitting in
that State. P. 466.
7. Under the common law, the admissibility of evidence is not
affected by the fact of its having been obtained illegally. P. 467.
8. The rule excluding from the federal Courts evidence of crime
procured by government officers by methods forbidden by the Fourth and Fifth Amendments is
an exception to the common law rule. Id.
9. Without the sanction of an Act of Congress, federal courts
have no discretion to exclude evidence, the admission of which is not unconstitutional,
because it was unethically procured. P. 468.
10. The statute of Washington, adopted in 1909, making the
interception of telephone messages a misdemeanor cannot affect the rules of evidence
applicable in federal courts in criminal cases. Id.
19 F. (2d) 842, 848, 850, affirmed.
Opinions
CERTIORARI, 276 U.S. 609, to
judgments of the Circuit Court of Appeals affirming convictions of conspiracy to violate
the Prohibition Act. See 5 F.2d 712; 7 F.2d 756, 760. The order granting certiorari
confined the hearing to the question whether the use in evidence of private telephone
conversations, intercepted by means of wiretapping, violated the Fourth and Fifth
Amendments. [p*455]
TAFT, C.J., Opinion of the Court
MR. CHIEF JUSTICE TAFT delivered the opinion of the Court.
These cases are here by certiorari from the Circuit Court of Appeals
for the Ninth Circuit. 19 F.2d 842 and 850. The petition in No. 493 was filed August 30,
1927; in Nos. 532 and 533, September 9, 1927. They were granted with the distinct
limitation that the hearing should be confined to the single question whether the use of
evidence of private telephone conversations between the defendants and others, intercepted
by means of wiretapping amounted to a violation of the Fourth and Fifth Amendments.
The petitioners were convicted in the District Court for the Western
District of Washington of a conspiracy to violate the National Prohibition Act by
unlawfully possessing, transporting and importing intoxicating liquors and maintaining
nuisances, and by selling intoxicating liquors. Seventy-two others in addition to the
petitioners were indicted. Some were not apprehended, some were acquitted, and others
pleaded guilty.
The evidence in the records discloses a conspiracy of amazing
magnitude to import, possess and sell liquor unlawfully. [p*456] It
involved the employment of not less than fifty persons, of two seagoing vessels for the
transportation of liquor to British Columbia, of smaller vessels for coastwise
transportation to the State of Washington, the purchase and use of a ranch beyond the
suburban limits of Seattle, with a large underground cache for storage and a number of
smaller caches in that city, the maintenance of a central office manned with operators,
the employment of executives, salesmen, deliverymen, dispatchers, scouts, bookkeepers,
collectors and an attorney. In a bad month, sales amounted to $176,000; the aggregate for
a year must have exceeded two millions of dollars.
Olmstead was the leading conspirator and the general manager of the
business. He made a contribution of $10,000 to the capital; eleven others contributed
$1,000 each. The profits were divided one-half to Olmstead and the remainder to the other
eleven. Of the several offices in Seattle, the chief one was in a large office building.
In this there were three telephones on three different lines. There were telephones in an
office of the manager in his own home, at the homes of his associates, and at other places
in the city. Communication was had frequently with Vancouver, British Columbia. Times were
fixed for the deliveries of the "stuff," to places along Puget Sound near
Seattle, and from there the liquor was removed and deposited in the caches already
referred to
One of the chief men was always on duty at the main office to
receive orders by telephones and to direct their filling by a corps of men stationed in
another room -- the " bull pen." The call numbers of the telephones were given
to those known to be likely customers. At times, the sales amounted to 200 cases of liquor
per day.
The information which led to the discovery of the conspiracy and its
nature and extent was largely obtained by intercepting messages on the telephones of the
conspirators by four federal prohibition officers. Small [p*457]
wires were inserted along the ordinary telephone wires from the residences of four of the
petitioners and those leading from the chief office. The insertions were made without
trespass upon any property of the defendants. They were made in the basement of the large
office building. The taps from house lines were made in the streets near the houses.
The gathering of evidence continued for many months. Conversations
of the conspirators, of which refreshing stenographic notes were currently made, were
testified to by the government witnesses. They revealed the large business transactions of
the partners and their subordinates. Men at the wires heard the orders given for liquor by
customers and the acceptances; they became auditors of the conversations between the
partners. All this disclosed the conspiracy charged in the indictment. Many of the
intercepted conversations were not merely reports, but parts of the criminal acts. The
evidence also disclosed the difficulties to which the conspirators were subjected, the
reported news of the capture of vessels, the arrest of their men and the seizure of cases
of liquor in garages and other places. It showed the dealing by Olmstead, the chief
conspirator, with members of the Seattle police, the messages to them which secured the
release of arrested members of the conspiracy, and also direct promises to officers of
payments as soon as opportunity offered.
The Fourth Amendment provides --
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses,
papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated, and
no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation and
particularly describing the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized.
And the Fifth: "No person . . . shall be compelled, in any
criminal case, to be a witness against himself." [p*458]
It will be helpful to consider the chief cases in this Court
which bear upon the construction of these Amendments.
Boyd v. United States, 116 U.S. 616, was an information filed
by the District Attorney in the federal court in a cause of seizure and forfeiture against
thirty-five cases of plate glass, which charged that the owner and importer, with intent
to defraud the revenue, made an entry of the imported merchandise by means of a fraudulent
or false invoice. It became important to show the quantity and value of glass contained in
twenty-nine cases previously imported. The fifth section of the Act of June 22, 1874,
provided that, in cases not criminal under the revenue laws, the United States Attorney,
whenever he thought an invoice belonging to the defendant would tend to prove any
allegation made by the United States, might, by a written motion describing the invoice
and setting forth the allegation which he expected to prove, secure a notice from the
court to the defendant to produce the invoice, and, if the defendant refused to produce
it, the allegations stated in the motion should be taken as confessed, but if produced,
the United States Attorney should be permitted, under the direction of the court, to make
an examination of the invoice, and might offer the same in evidence. This Act had
succeeded the Act of 1867, which provided that, in such cases, the District Judge, on
affidavit of any person interested, might issue a warrant to the marshal to enter the
premises where the invoice was and take possession of it and hold it subject to the order
of the judge. This had been preceded by the Act of 1863 of a similar tenor, except that it
directed the warrant to the collector, instead of the marshal. The United States Attorney
followed the Act of 1874 and compelled the production of the invoice.
The court held the Act of 1874 repugnant to the Fourth and Fifth
Amendments. As to the Fourth Amendment, Justice Bradley said (page 621): [p*459]
But, in regard to the Fourth Amendment, it is contended that,
whatever might have been alleged against the constitutionality of the acts of 1863 and
1867, that of 1874, under which the order in the present case was made, is free from
constitutional objection because it does not authorize the search and seizure of books and
papers, but only requires the defendant or claimant to produce them. That is so; but it
declares that, if he does not produce them, the allegations which it is affirmed they will
prove shall be taken as confessed. This is tantamount to compelling their production, for
the prosecuting attorney will always be sure to state the evidence expected to be derived
from them as strongly as the case will admit of. It is true that certain aggravating
incidents of actual search and seizure, such as forcible entry into a man's house and
searching amongst his papers, are wanting, and, to this extent, the proceeding under the
Act of 1874 is a mitigation of that which was authorized by the former acts; but it
accomplishes the substantial object of those acts in forcing from a party evidence against
himself. It is our opinion, therefore, that a compulsory production of a man's private
papers to establish a criminal charge against him, or to forfeit his property, is within
the scope of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution in all cases in which a search and
seizure would be, because it is a material ingredient, and effects the sole object and
purpose of search and seizure.
Concurring, Mr. Justice Miller and Chief Justice Waite said that
they did not think the machinery used to get this evidence amounted to a search and
seizure, but they agreed that the Fifth Amendment had been violated.
The statute provided an official demand for the production of a
paper or document by the defendant for official search and use as evidence on penalty
that, by refusal, he should be conclusively held to admit the incriminating [p*460]
character of the document as charged. It was certainly no straining of the language to
construe the search and seizure under the Fourth Amendment to include such official
procedure.
The next case, and perhaps the most important, is Weeks v. United
States, 232 U.S. 383 -- a conviction for using the mails to transmit coupons or
tickets in a lottery enterprise. The defendant was arrested by a police officer without a
warrant. After his arrest, other police officers and the United States marshal went to his
house, got the key from a neighbor, entered the defendant's room and searched it, and took
possession of various papers and articles. Neither the marshal nor the police officers had
a search warrant. The defendant filed a petition in court asking the return of all his
property. The court ordered the return of everything not pertinent to the charge, but
denied return of relevant evidence. After the jury was sworn, the defendant again made
objection, and, on introduction of the papers, contended that the search without warrant
was a violation of the Fourth and Fifth Amendments, and they were therefore inadmissible.
This court held that such taking of papers by an official of the United States, acting
under color of his office, was in violation of the constitutional rights of the defendant,
and, upon making seasonable application, he was entitled to have them restored, and that,
by permitting their use upon the trial, the trial court erred.
The opinion cited with approval language of Mr. Justice Field in Ex
parte Jackson, 96 U.S. 727, 733, saying that the Fourth Amendment, as a principle of
protection, was applicable to sealed letters and packages in the mail, and that,
consistently with it, such matter could only be opened and examined upon warrants issued
on oath or affirmation particularly describing the thing to be seized.
In Silverthorne Lumber Company v. United States, 251 U.S.
385, the defendants were arrested at their homes and [p*461]
detained in custody. While so detained, representatives of the Government, without
authority, went to the office of their company and seized all the books, papers and
documents found there. An application for return of the things was opposed by the District
Attorney, who produced a subpoena for certain documents relating to the charge in the
indictment then on file. The court said:
Thus, the case is not that of knowledge acquired through the
wrongful act of a stranger, but it must be assumed that the Government planned, or at all
events ratified, the whole performance.
And it held that the illegal character of the original seizure
characterized the entire proceeding, and, under the Weeks case, the seized papers
must be restored.
In Amos v. United States, 255 U.S. 313, the defendant was
convicted of concealing whiskey on which the tax had not been paid. At the trial, he
presented a petition asking that private property seized in a search of his house and
store "within his curtilage" without warrant should be returned. This was
denied. A woman who claimed to be his wife was told by the revenue officers that they had
come to search the premises for violation of the revenue law. She opened the door; they
entered, and found whiskey. Further searches in the house disclosed more. It was held that
this action constituted a violation of the Fourth Amendment, and that the denial of the
motion to restore the whiskey and to exclude the testimony was error.
In Gouled v. The United States, 255 U.S. 298, the facts were
these: Gouled and two others were charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States.
One pleaded guilty, and another was acquitted. Gouled prosecuted error. The matter was
presented here on questions propounded by the lower court. The first related to the
admission in evidence of a paper surreptitiously taken from the office of the defendant by
one acting under the direction [p*462] of an officer of the
Intelligence Department of the Army of the United States. Gouled was suspected of the
crime. A private in the U.S. Army, pretending to make a friendly call on him, gained
admission to his office and, in his absence, without warrant of any character, seized and
carried away several documents. One of these belonging to Gouled, was delivered to the
United States Attorney, and by him introduced in evidence. When produced, it was a
surprise to the defendant. He had had no opportunity to make a previous motion to secure a
return of it. The paper had no pecuniary value, but was relevant to the issue made on the
trial. Admission of the paper was considered a violation of the Fourth Amendment.
Agnello v. United States, 269 U.S. 20, held that the Fourth
and Fifth Amendments were violated by admission in evidence of contraband narcotics found
in defendant's house, several blocks distant from the place of arrest, after his arrest,
and seized there without a warrant. Under such circumstances, the seizure could not be
justified as incidental to the arrest.
There is no room in the present case for applying the Fifth
Amendment unless the Fourth Amendment was first violated. There was no evidence of
compulsion to induce the defendants to talk over their many telephones, They were
continually and voluntarily transacting business without knowledge of the interception.
Our consideration must be confined to the Fourth Amendment.
The striking outcome of the Weeks case and those which
followed it was the sweeping declaration that the Fourth Amendment, although not referring
to or limiting the use of evidence in courts, really forbade its introduction if obtained
by government officers through a violation of the Amendment. Theretofore, many had
supposed that, under the ordinary common law rules, if the tendered evidence was
pertinent, the method of obtaining it was [p*463] unimportant. This
was held by the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts in Commonwealth v. Dana, 2
Metcalf, 329, 337. There it was ruled that the only remedy open to a defendant whose
rights under a state constitutional equivalent of the Fourth Amendment had been invaded
was by suit and judgment for damages, as Lord Camden held in Entick v. Carrington,
19 Howell State Trials, 1029. Mr. Justice Bradley made effective use of this case in Boyd
v. United States. But in the Weeks case, and those which followed, this Court
decided with great emphasis, and established as the law for the federal courts, that the
protection of the Fourth Amendment would be much impaired unless it was held that not only
was the official violator of the rights under the Amendment subject to action at the suit
of the injured defendant, but also that the evidence thereby obtained could not be
received.
The well known historical purpose of the Fourth Amendment, directed
against general warrants and writs of assistance, was to prevent the use of governmental
force to search a man's house, his person, his papers and his effects, and to prevent
their seizure against his will. This phase of the misuse of governmental power of
compulsion is the emphasis of the opinion of the Court in the Boyd case. This
appears too in the Weeks case, in the Silverthorne case, and in the Amos
case.
Gouled v. United States carried the inhibition against
unreasonable searches and seizures to the extreme limit. Its authority is not to be
enlarged by implication, and must be confined to the precise state of facts disclosed by
the record. A representative of the Intelligence Department of the Army, having by stealth
obtained admission to the defendant's office, seized and carried away certain private
papers valuable for evidential purposes. This was held an unreasonable search and seizure
within the Fourth Amendment. A stealthy entrance in such circumstances [p*464]
became the equivalent to an entry by force. There was actual entrance into the private
quarters of defendant, and the taking away of something tangible. Here we have testimony
only of voluntary conversations secretly overheard.
The Amendment itself shows that the search is to be of material
things -- the person, the house, his papers, or his effects. The description of the
warrant necessary to make the proceeding lawful is that it must specify the place to be
searched and the person or things to be seized.
It is urged that the language of Mr. Justice Field in Ex parte
Jackson, already quoted, offers an analogy to the interpretation of the Fourth
Amendment in respect of wiretapping. But the analogy fails. The Fourth Amendment may have
proper application to a sealed letter in the mail because of the constitutional provision
for the Post Office Department and the relations between the Government and those who pay
to secure protection of their sealed letters. See Revised Statutes, §§ 3978 to
3988, whereby Congress monopolizes the carriage of letters and excludes from that business
everyone else, and § 3929, which forbids any postmaster or other person to open any
letter not addressed to himself. It is plainly within the words of the Amendment to say
that the unlawful rifling by a government agent of a sealed letter is a search and seizure
of the sender's papers or effects. The letter is a paper, an effect, and in the custody of
a Government that forbids carriage except under its protection.
The United States takes no such care of telegraph or telephone
messages as of mailed sealed letters. The Amendment does not forbid what was done here.
There was no searching. There was no seizure. The evidence was secured by the use of the
sense of hearing, and that only. There was no entry of the houses or offices of the
defendants. [p*465]
By the invention of the telephone fifty years ago and its
application for the purpose of extending communications, one can talk with another at a
far distant place. The language of the Amendment cannot be extended and expanded to
include telephone wires reaching to the whole world from the defendant's house or office.
The intervening wires are not part of his house or office any more than are the highways
along which they are stretched.
This Court, in Carroll v. United States, 267 U.S. 132, 149,
declared:
The Fourth Amendment is to be construed in the light of what was
deemed an unreasonable search and seizure when it was adopted and in a manner which will
conserve public interests as well as the interests and rights of individual citizens.
Justice Bradley, in the Boyd case, and Justice Clark in the Gouled
case, said that the Fifth Amendment and the Fourth Amendment were to be liberally
construed to effect the purpose of the framers of the Constitution in the interest of
liberty. But that cannot justify enlargement of the language employed beyond the possible
practical meaning of houses, persons, papers, and effects, or so to apply the words search
and seizure as to forbid hearing or sight.
Hester v. United States, 265 U.S. 57, held that the testimony
of two officers of the law who trespassed on the defendant's land, concealed themselves
one hundred yards away from his house, and saw him come out and hand a bottle of whiskey
to another was not inadmissible. While there was a trespass, there was no search of
person, house, papers or effects. United States v. Lee, 274 U.S. 559, 563; Eversole
v. State, 106 Tex.Cr. 567.
Congress may, of course, protect the secrecy of telephone messages
by making them, when intercepted, inadmissible in evidence in federal criminal trials by
direct legislation, [p*466] and thus depart from the common law of
evidence. But the courts may not adopt such a policy by attributing an enlarged and
unusual meaning to the Fourth Amendment. The reasonable view is that one who installs in
his house a telephone instrument with connecting wires intends to project his voice to
those quite outside, and that the wires beyond his house and messages while passing over
them are not within the protection of the Fourth Amendment. Here, those who intercepted
the projected voices were not in the house of either party to the conversation.
Neither the cases we have cited nor any of the many federal
decisions brought to our attention hold the Fourth Amendment to have been violated as
against a defendant unless there has been an official search and seizure of his person, or
such a seizure of his papers or his tangible material effects, or an actual physical
invasion of his house "or curtilage" for the purpose of making a seizure.
We think, therefore, that the wiretapping here disclosed did not
amount to a search or seizure within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment.
What has been said disposes of the only question that comes within
the terms of our order granting certiorari in these cases. But some of our number,
departing from that order, have concluded that there is merit in the two-fold objection
overruled in both courts below -- that evidence obtained through intercepting of telephone
messages by government agents was inadmissible because the mode of obtaining it was
unethical, and a misdemeanor under the law of Washington. To avoid any misapprehension of
our views of that objection, we shall deal with it in both of its phases.
While a Territory, the English common law prevailed in Washington,
and thus continued after her admission in 1889. The rules of evidence in criminal cases in
courts of the United States sitting there, consequently, are those of the common law. United
States v. Reid, 12 How. 361, [p*467] 363, 366; Logan v.
United States, 144 U.S. 263, 301; Rosen v. United States, 245 U.S. 467; Withaup
v. United States, 127 Fed. 530, 534; Robinson v. United States, 292 Fed. 683,
685.
The common law rule is that the admissibility of evidence, is not
affected by the illegality of the means by which it was obtained. Professor Greenleaf, in
his work on evidence, vol. 1, 12th ed., by Redfield, § 254(a) says:
It may be mentioned in this place, that though papers and other
subjects of evidence may have been illegally taken from the possession of the party
against whom they are offered, or otherwise unlawfully obtained, this is no valid
objection to their admissibility, if they are pertinent to the issue. The court will not
take notice how they were obtained, whether lawfully or unlawfully, nor will it form an
issue, to determine that question.
Mr. Jones, in his work on the same subject, refers to Mr.
Greenleaf's statement and says:
Where there is no violation of a constitutional guaranty, the verity
of the above statement is absolute.
Vol. 5, § 2075, note 3.
The rule is supported by many English and American cases cited by
Jones in vol. 5, 2075, note 3, and § 2076, note 6, and by Wigmore, vol. 4, § 2183. It is
recognized by this Court, in Adams v. New York, 192 U.S. 585. The Weeks case
announced an exception to the common law rule by excluding all evidence in the procuring
of which government officials took part by methods forbidden by the Fourth and Fifth
Amendments. Many state courts do not follow the Weeks case. People v. Defore,
242 N.Y. 13. But those who do treat it as an exception to the general common law rule, and
required by constitutional limitations. Hughes v. State, 145 Tenn. 544, 551, 566; State
v. Wills, 91 W.Va. 659, 677; State v. Slamon, 73 Vt. 212, 214, 215; Gindrat
v. People, 138 Ill. 103, 111; People v. Castree, 311 Ill. 392, 396, 397; State
v. [p*468] Gardner, 77 Mont. 8, 21; State v. Fahn,
53 N.Dak. 203, 210. The common law rule must apply in the case at bar. Nor can we, without
the sanction of congressional enactment, subscribe to the suggestion that the courts have
a discretion to exclude evidence the admission of which is not unconstitutional because
unethically secured. This would be at variance with the common law doctrine generally
supported by authority. There is no case that sustains, nor any recognized text book that
gives color to, such a view. Our general experience shows that much evidence has always
been receivable although not obtained by conformity to the highest ethics. The history of
criminal trials shows numerous cases of prosecutions of oath-bound conspiracies for
murder, robbery, and other crimes where officers of the law have disguised themselves and
joined the organizations, taken the oaths and given themselves every appearance of active
members engaged in the promotion of crime, for the purpose of securing evidence. Evidence
secured by such means has always been received.
A standard which would forbid the reception of evidence if obtained
by other than nice ethical conduct by government officials would make society suffer and
give criminals greater immunity than has been known heretofore. In the absence of
controlling legislation by Congress, those who realize the difficulties in bringing
offenders to justice may well deem it wise that the exclusion of evidence should be
confined to cases where rights under the Constitution would be violated by admitting it.
The statute of Washington, adopted in 1909, provides (Remington
Compiled Statutes, 1922, § 26518) that:
Every person . . . who shall intercept, read or in any manner
interrupt or delay the sending of a message over any telegraph or telephone line . . .
shall be guilty of a misdemeanor [p*469]
This statute does not declare that evidence obtained by such
interception shall be inadmissible, and, by the common law already referred to, it would
not be. People v. McDonald, 177 App.Div. (N.Y.) 806. Whether the State of
Washington may prosecute and punish federal officers violating this law and those whose
messages were intercepted may sue them civilly is not before us. But clearly a statute,
passed twenty years after the admission of the State into the Union cannot affect the
rules of evidence applicable in courts of the United States in criminal cases. Chief
Justice Taney, in United States v. Reid, 12 How. 361, 363, construing the 34th
section of the Judiciary Act, said:
But it could not be supposed, without very plain words to show it,
that Congress intended to give the states the power of prescribing the rules of evidence
in trials for offenses against the United States. For this construction would place the
criminal jurisprudence of one sovereignty under the control of another.
See also Withaup v. United States, 127 Fed. 530, 534.
The judgments of the Circuit Court of Appeals are affirmed. The
mandates will go down forthwith under Rule 31.
Affirmed.
HOLMES, J., Separate Opinion
MR. JUSTICE HOLMES:
My brother BRANDEIS has given this case so exhaustive an examination
that I desire to add but a few words. While I do not deny it, I am not prepared to say
that the penumbra of the Fourth and Fifth Amendments covers the defendant, although I
fully agree that Courts are apt to err by sticking too closely to the words of a law where
those words import a policy that goes beyond them. Gooch v. Oregon Short line R.R. Co.,
258 U.S. 22, 24. But I think, as MR. JUSTICE BRANDEIS says, that, apart from the
Constitution, the Government ought not to use [p*470] evidence
obtained and only obtainable by a criminal act. There is no body of precedents by which we
are bound, and which confines us to logical deduction from established rules. Therefore we
must consider the two objects of desire, both of which we cannot have, and make up our
minds which to choose. It is desirable that criminals should be detected, and, to that
end, that all available evidence should be used. It also is desirable that the Government
should not itself foster and pay for other crime, when they are the means by which the
evidence is to be obtained. If it pays its officers for having got evidence by crime I do
not see why it may not as well pay them for getting it in the same way, and I can attach
no importance to protestations of disapproval if it knowingly accepts and pays and
announces that, in future it will pay for the fruits. We have to choose, and, for my part,
I think it a less evil that some criminals should escape than that the Government should
play an ignoble part.
For those who agree with me, no distinction can be taken between the
Government as prosecutor and the Government as judge. If the existing code does not permit
district attorneys to have a hand in such dirty business, it does not permit the judge to
allow such iniquities to succeed. See Silverthorne Lumber Co. v. United States, 251
U.S. 385. And if all that I have said so far be accepted, it makes no difference that, in
this case, wiretapping is made a crime by the law of the State, not by the law of the
United States. It is true that a State cannot make rules of evidence for Courts of the
United States, but the State has authority over the conduct in question, and I hardly
think that the United States would appear to greater advantage when paying for an odious
crime against State law than when inciting to the disregard of its own. I am aware of the
often repeated statement that, in a criminal proceeding, the Court will not take notice of
the manner in which papers offered in evidence have been [p*471]
obtained. But that somewhat rudimentary mode of disposing of the question has been
overthrown by Weeks v. United States, 232 U.S. 383, and the cases that have
followed it. I have said that we are free to choose between two principles of policy. But
if we are to confine ourselves to precedent and logic, the reason for excluding evidence
obtained by violating the Constitution seems to me logically to lead to excluding evidence
obtained by a crime of the officers of the law.
BRANDEIS, J., Dissenting Opinion
MR. JUSTICE BRANDEIS, dissenting.
The defendants were convicted of conspiring to violate the National
Prohibition Act. Before any of the persons now charged had been arrested or indicted, the
telephones by means of which they habitually communicated with one another and with others
had been tapped by federal officers. To this end, a lineman of long experience in
wiretapping was employed on behalf of the Government and at its expense. He tapped eight
telephones, some in the homes of the persons charged, some in their offices. Acting on
behalf of the Government and in their official capacity, at least six other prohibition
agents listened over the tapped wires and reported the messages taken. Their operations
extended over a period of nearly five months. The typewritten record of the notes of
conversations overheard occupies 775 typewritten pages. By objections seasonably made and
persistently renewed, the defendants objected to the admission of the evidence obtained by
wiretapping on the ground that the Government's wiretapping constituted an unreasonable
search and seizure in violation of the Fourth Amendment, and that the use as evidence of
the conversations overheard compelled the defendants to be witnesses against themselves in
violation of the Fifth Amendment.
The Government makes no attempt to defend the methods employed by
its officers. Indeed, it concedes [p*472] that, if wiretapping can
be deemed a search and seizure within the Fourth Amendment, such wiretapping as was
practiced in the case at bar was an unreasonable search and seizure, and that the evidence
thus obtained was inadmissible. But it relies on the language of the Amendment, and it
claims that the protection given thereby cannot properly be held to include a telephone
conversation.
"We must never forget," said Mr. Chief Justice Marshall in
McCulloch v. Maryland, 4 Wheat. 316, 407, "that it is a constitution we are
expounding." Since then, this Court has repeatedly sustained the exercise of power by
Congress, under various clauses of that instrument, over objects of which the Fathers
could not have dreamed. See Pensacola Telegraph Co. v. Western Union Telegraph Co.,
96 U.S. 1, 9; Northern Pacific Ry. Co. v. North Dakota, 250 U.S. 135; Dakota
Central Telephone Co. v. South Dakota, 250 U.S. 163; Brooks v. United States,
267 U.S. 432. We have likewise held that general limitations on the powers of Government,
like those embodied in the due process clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, do
not forbid the United States or the States from meeting modern conditions by regulations
which, "a century ago, or even half a century ago, probably would have been rejected
as arbitrary and oppressive." Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co., 272 U.S.
365, 387; Buck v. Bell, 274 U.S. 200. Clauses guaranteeing to the individual
protection against specific abuses of power must have a similar capacity of adaptation to
a changing world. It was with reference to such a clause that this Court said, in Weems
v. United States, 217 U.S. 349, 373:
Legislation, both statutory and constitutional, is enacted, it is
true, from an experience of evils, but its general language should not, therefore, be
necessarily confined to the form that evil had theretofore taken. Time works changes,
brings into existence new conditions [p*473] and purposes.
Therefore, a principle, to be vital, must be capable of wider application than the
mischief which gave it birth. This is peculiarly true of constitutions. They are not
ephemeral enactments, designed to meet passing occasions. They are, to use the words of
Chief Justice Marshall "designed to approach immortality as nearly as human
institutions can approach it." The future is their care, and provision for events of
good and bad tendencies of which no prophecy can be made. In the application of a
constitution, therefore, our contemplation cannot be only of what has been, but of what
may be. Under any other rule, a constitution would indeed be as easy of application as it
would be deficient in efficacy and power. Its general principles would have little value,
and be converted by precedent into impotent and lifeless formulas. Rights declared in
words might be lost in reality.
When the Fourth and Fifth Amendments were adopted, "the form
that evil had theretofore taken" had been necessarily simple. Force and violence were
then the only means known to man by which a Government could directly effect
self-incrimination. It could compel the individual to testify -- a compulsion effected, if
need be, by torture. It could secure possession of his papers and other articles incident
to his private life -- a seizure effected, if need be, by breaking and entry. Protection
against such invasion of "the sanctities of a man's home and the privacies of
life" was provided in the Fourth and Fifth Amendments by specific language. Boyd
v. United States, 116 U.S. 616, 630. But "time works changes, brings into
existence new conditions and purposes." Subtler and more far-reaching means of
invading privacy have become available to the Government. Discovery and invention have
made it possible for the Government, by means far more effective than stretching upon the
rack, to obtain disclosure in court of what is whispered in the closet. [p*474]
Moreover, "in the application of a constitution, our
contemplation cannot be only of what has, been but of what may be." The progress of
science in furnishing the Government with means of espionage is not likely to stop with
wiretapping. Ways may someday be developed by which the Government, without removing
papers from secret drawers, can reproduce them in court, and by which it will be enabled
to expose to a jury the most intimate occurrences of the home. Advances in the psychic and
related sciences may bring means of exploring unexpressed beliefs, thoughts and emotions.
"That places the liberty of every man in the hands of every petty officer" was
said by James Otis of much lesser intrusions than these. [n1] To Lord Camden, a far
slighter intrusion seemed "subversive of all the comforts of society." [n2] Can
it be that the Constitution affords no protection against such invasions of individual
security?
A sufficient answer is found in Boyd v. United States, 116
U.S. 616, 627-630, a case that will be remembered as long as civil liberty lives in the
United States. This Court there reviewed the history that lay behind the Fourth and Fifth
Amendments. We said with reference to Lord Camden's judgment in Entick v. Carrington,
19 Howell's State Trials 1030:
The principles laid down in this opinion affect the very essence of
constitutional liberty and security. They reach farther than the concrete form of the case
there before the court, with its adventitious circumstances; they apply to all invasions
on the part of the Government and its employes of the sanctities of a man's home and the
privacies of life. It is not the breaking of his doors, and the rummaging of his drawers,
that constitutes the essence of the offence; but it is the invasion of his indefeasible
right of personal security, [p*475] personal liberty and private
property, where that right has never been forfeited by his conviction of some public
offence -- it is the invasion of this sacred right which underlies and constitutes the
essence of Lord Camden's judgment. Breaking into a house and opening boxes and drawers are
circumstances of aggravation; but any forcible and compulsory extortion of a man's own
testimony or of his private papers to be used as evidence of a crime or to forfeit his
goods is within the condemnation of that judgment. In this regard, the Fourth and Fifth
Amendments run almost into each other. [n3]
In Ex parte Jackson, 96 U.S. 727, it was held that a sealed
letter entrusted to the mail is protected by the Amendments. The mail is a public service
furnished by the Government. The telephone is a public service furnished by its authority.
There is, in essence, no difference between the sealed letter and the private telephone
message. As Judge Rudkin said below:
True, the one is visible, the other invisible; the one is tangible,
the other intangible; the one is sealed, and the other unsealed, but these are
distinctions without a difference.
The evil incident to invasion of the privacy of the telephone is far
greater than that involved in tampering with the mails. Whenever a telephone line is
tapped, the privacy of the persons at both ends of the line is invaded and all
conversations [p*476] between them upon any subject, and, although
proper, confidential and privileged, may be overheard. Moreover, the tapping of one man's
telephone line involves the tapping of the telephone of every other person whom he may
call or who may call him. As a means of espionage, writs of assistance and general
warrants are but puny instruments of tyranny and oppression when compared with
wiretapping.
Time and again, this Court in giving effect to the principle
underlying the Fourth Amendment, has refused to place an unduly literal construction upon
it. This was notably illustrated in the Boyd case itself. Taking language in its
ordinary meaning, there is no "search" or "seizure" when a defendant
is required to produce a document in the orderly process of a court's procedure. "The
right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against
unreasonable searches and seizures" would not be violated, under any ordinary
construction of language, by compelling obedience to a subpoena. But this Court holds the
evidence inadmissible simply because the information leading to the issue of the subpoena
has been unlawfully secured. Silverthorne Lumber Co. v. United States, 251 U.S.
385. Literally, there is no "search" or "seizure" when a friendly
visitor abstracts papers from an office; yet we held in Gouled v. United States,
255 U.S. 298, that evidence so obtained could not be used. No court which looked at the
words of the Amendment, rather than at its underlying purpose, would hold, as this Court
did in Ex parte Jackson, 96 U.S. 727, 733, that its protection extended to letters
in the mails. The provision against self-incrimination in the Fifth Amendment has been
given an equally broad construction. The language is: "No person shall be compelled
in any criminal case to be a witness against himself." Yet we have held not only that
the [p*477] protection of the Amendment extends to a witness before
a grand jury, although he has not been charged with crime, Counselman v. Hitchcock,
142 U.S. 547, 562, 586, but that:
[i]t applies alike to civil and criminal proceedings, wherever the
answer might tend to subject to criminal responsibility him who gives it. The privilege
protects a mere witness as fully as it does one who is also a party defendant.
McCarthy v. Arndsten, 266 U.S. 34, 40. The narrow language of
the Amendment has been consistently construed in the light of its object,
to insure that a person should not be compelled, when acting as a
witness in any investigation, to give testimony which might tend to show that he himself
had committed a crime. The privilege is limited to criminal matters, but it is as broad as
the mischief against which it seeks to guard.
Counselman v. Hitchcock, supra, p. 562.
Decisions of this Court applying the principle of the Boyd
case have settled these things. Unjustified search and seizure violates the Fourth
Amendment, whatever the character of the paper; [n4] whether the paper when taken by the
federal officers was in the home, [n5] in an office, [n6] or elsewhere; [n7] whether the
taking was effected by force, [n8] by [p*478] fraud, [n9] or in the
orderly process of a court's procedure. [n10] From these decisions, it follows necessarily
that the Amendment is violated by the officer's reading the paper without a physical
seizure, without his even touching it, and that use, in any criminal proceeding, of the
contents of the paper so examined -- as where they are testified to by a federal officer
who thus saw the document, or where, through knowledge so obtained, a copy has been
procured elsewhere [n11] -- any such use constitutes a violation of the Fifth Amendment.
The protection guaranteed by the Amendments is much broader in
scope. The makers of our Constitution undertook to secure conditions favorable to the
pursuit of happiness. They recognized the significance of man's spiritual nature, of his
feelings, and of his intellect. They knew that only a part of the pain, pleasure and
satisfactions of life are to be found in material things. They sought to protect Americans
in their beliefs, their thoughts, their emotions and their sensations. They conferred, as
against the Government, the right to be let alone -- the most comprehensive of rights, and
the right most valued by civilized men. To protect that right, every unjustifiable
intrusion by the Government upon the privacy of the individual, whatever the means
employed, must be deemed a violation of the Fourth Amendment. And the use, as evidence [p*479] in a criminal proceeding, of facts ascertained by such intrusion
must be deemed a violation of the Fifth.
Applying to the Fourth and Fifth Amendments the established rule of
construction, the defendants' objections to the evidence obtained by wiretapping must, in
my opinion, be sustained. It is, of course, immaterial where the physical connection with
the telephone wires leading into the defendants' premises was made. And it is also
immaterial that the intrusion was in aid of law enforcement. Experience should teach us to
be most on our guard to protect liberty when the Government's purposes are beneficent. Men
born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded
rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal,
well meaning but without understanding. [n12]
Independently of the constitutional question, I am of opinion that
the judgment should be reversed. By the laws of Washington, wiretapping is a crime. [n13]
Pierce's [p*480] Code, 1921, § 8976(18). To prove its case, the
Government was obliged to lay bare the crimes committed by its officers on its behalf. A
federal court should not permit such a prosecution to continue. Compare Harkin v.
Brundage, 276 U.S. 36, id., 604. [p*481]
The situation in the case at bar differs widely from that
presented in Burdeau v. McDowell, 256 U.S. 465. There, only a single lot of papers
was involved. They had been obtained by a private detective while acting on behalf of a
private party; without the knowledge of any federal official; long before anyone had
thought of instituting a [p*482] federal prosecution. Here, the
evidence obtained by crime was obtained at the Government's expense, by its officers,
while acting on its behalf; the officers who committed these crimes are the same officers
who were charged with the enforcement of the Prohibition Act; the crimes of these officers
were committed for the purpose of securing evidence with which to obtain an indictment and
to secure a conviction. The evidence so obtained constitutes the warp and woof of the
Government's case. The aggregate of the Government evidence occupies 306 pages of the
printed record. More than 210 of them are filled by recitals of the details of the
wiretapping and of facts ascertained thereby. [n14] There is literally no other evidence
of guilt on the part of some of the defendants except that illegally obtained by these
officers. As to nearly all the defendants (except those who admitted guilt), the evidence
relied upon to secure a conviction consisted mainly of that which these officers had so
obtained by violating the state law.
As Judge Rudkin said below:
Here we are concerned with neither eavesdroppers nor thieves. Nor
are we concerned with the acts of private individuals. . . . We are concerned only with
the acts of federal agents whose powers are limited and controlled by the Constitution of
the United States.
The Eighteenth Amendment has not, in terms, empowered Congress to
authorize anyone to violate the criminal laws of a State. And Congress has never purported
to do so. Compare Maryland v. Soper, 270 U.S. 9. The terms of appointment of
federal prohibition agents do not purport to confer upon them authority to violate any
criminal law. Their superior officer, the Secretary of the Treasury, has not instructed
them to commit [p*483] crime on behalf of the United States. It may
be assumed that the Attorney General of the United States did not give any such
instruction. [n15]
When these unlawful acts were committed, they were crimes only of
the officers individually. The Government was innocent, in legal contemplation, for no
federal official is authorized to commit a crime on its behalf. When the Government,
having full knowledge, sought, through the Department of Justice, to avail itself of the
fruits of these acts in order to accomplish its own ends, it assumed moral responsibility
for the officers' crimes. Compare The Paquete Habana, 189 U.S. 453, 465; O'Reilly
deCamara v. Brooke, 209 U.S. 45, 52; Dodge v. United States, 272 U.S. 530, 532;
Gambino v. United States, 275 U.S. 310. And if this Court should permit the
Government, by means of its officers' crimes, to effect its purpose of punishing the
defendants, there would seem to be present all the elements of a ratification. If so, the
Government itself would become a lawbreaker.
Will this Court, by sustaining the judgment below, sanction such
conduct on the part of the Executive? The governing principle has long been settled. It is
that a court will not redress a wrong when he who invokes its aid has unclean hands. [n16]
The maxim of unclean hands comes [p*484] from courts of equity.
[n17] But the principle prevails also in courts of law. Its common application is in civil
actions between private parties. Where the Government is the actor, the reasons for
applying it are even more persuasive. Where the remedies invoked are those of the criminal
law, the reasons are compelling. [n18]
The door of a court is not barred because the plaintiff has
committed a crime. The confirmed criminal is as much entitled to redress as his most
virtuous fellow citizen; no record of crime, however long, makes one an outlaw. The
court's aid is denied only when he who seeks it has violated the law in connection with
the very transaction as to which he seeks legal redress. [n19] Then aid is denied despite
the defendant's wrong. It is denied in order to maintain respect for law; in order to
promote confidence in the administration of justice; in order to preserve the judicial
process from contamination. The rule is one, not of action, but of inaction. It is
sometimes [p*485] spoken of as a rule of substantive law. But it
extends to matters of procedure, as well. [n20] A defense may be waived. It is waived when
not pleaded. But the objection that the plaintiff comes with unclean hands will be taken
by the court itself. [n21] It will be taken despite the wish to the contrary of all the
parties to the litigation. The court protects itself.
Decency, security and liberty alike demand that government officials
shall be subjected to the same rules of conduct that are commands to the citizen. In a
government of laws, existence of the government will be imperiled if it fails to observe
the law scrupulously. Our Government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or
for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the
Government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to
become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. To declare that, in the administration of
the criminal law, the end justifies the means -- to declare that the Government may commit
crimes in order to secure the conviction of a private criminal -- would bring terrible
retribution. Against that pernicious doctrine this Court should resolutely set its face.
1. Otis' Argument against Writs of Assistance. See
Tudor, James Otis, p. 66; John Adams, Works, Vol. II, p. 524; Minot, Continuation of the
History of Massachusetts Bay, Vol. II, p 95.
2. Entick v. Carrington, 19 Howell's State Trials, 1030,
1066.
3. In Interstate Commerce Commission v. Brimson, 154 U.S.
447, 479, the statement made in the Boyd case was repeated, and the Court quoted
the statement of Mr. Justice Field in In re Pacific Railway Commission, 32 Fed.
241, 250:
Of all the rights of the citizen, few are of greater
importance or more essential to his peace and happiness than the right of personal
security, and that involves not merely protection of his person from assault, but
exemption of his private affairs, books, and papers, from the inspection and scrutiny of
others. Without the enjoyment of this right, all others would lose half their value.
The Boyd case has been recently reaffirmed in Silverthorne
Lumber Co. v. United States, 251 U.S. 385, in Gouled v. United States, 255 U.S.
298, and in Byars v. United States, 273 U.S. 28.
4. Gouled v. United States, 255 U.S. 298.
5. Weeks v. United States, 232 U.S. 383; Amos v. United
States, 255 U.S. 313; Agnello v. United States, 269 U.S. 20; Byars v. United
States, 273 U.S. 28.
6. Boyd v. United States, 116 U.S. 616; Hale v. Henkel,
201 U.S. 43, 70; Silverthorne Lumber Co. v. United States, 251 U.S. 385; Gouled
v. United States, 255 U.S. 298; Marron v. United States, 275 U.S. 192.
7. Ex parte Jackson, 96 U.S. 727, 733; Carroll v. United
States, 267 U.S. 132, 156; Gambino v. United States, 275 U.S. 310.
8. Weeks v. United States, 232 U.S. 383; Silverthorne
Lumber Co. v. United States, 251 U.S. 385; Amos v. United States, 255 U.S. 313;
Carroll v. United States, 267 U.S. 132, 156; Agnello v. United States, 269
U.S. 20; Gambino v. United States, 275 U.S. 310.
9. Gouled v. United States, 255 U.S. 298.
10. Boyd v. United States, 116 U.S. 616; Hale v. Henkel,
201 U.S. 43, 70. See Gouled v. United States, 255 U.S. 298; Byars v. United
States, 273 U.S. 28; Marron v. United States, 275 U.S. 192.
11. Silverthorne Lumber Co. v. United States, 251 U.S. 385. Compare
Gouled v. United States, 255 U.S. 298, 307. In Stroud v. United States, 251
U.S. 15, and Hester v. United States, 265 U.S. 57, the letter and articles admitted
were not obtained by unlawful search and seizure. They were voluntary disclosures by the
defendant. Compare Smith v. United States, 2 F.2d 715; United States v. Lee,
274 U.S. 559.
12. The point is thus stated by counsel for the telephone companies,
who have filed a brief as amici curiae:
Criminals will not escape detection and
conviction merely because evidence obtained by tapping wires of a public telephone system
is inadmissible, if it should be so held; but, in any event, it is better that a few
criminals escape than that the privacies of life of all the people be exposed to the
agents of the government, who will act at their own discretion, the honest and the
dishonest, unauthorized and unrestrained by the courts. Legislation making wiretapping a
crime will not suffice if the courts nevertheless hold the evidence to be lawful.
13. In the following states, it is a criminal offense to intercept a
message sent by telegraph and/or telephone: Alabama, Code, 1923, § 5256; Arizona, Revised
Statutes, 1913, Penal Code, § 692; Arkansas, Crawford & Moses Digest, 1921, § 10246;
California, Deering's Penal Code, 1927, § 640; Colorado, Compiled Laws, 1921, § 6969;
Connecticut, General Statutes, 1918, § 6292; Idaho, Compiled Statutes, 1919, §§ 8574,
8586; Illinois, Revised Statutes, 1927, c. 134, § 21; Iowa, Code, 1927, § 13121; Kansas,
Revised Statutes, 1923, c. 17, § 1908; Michigan Compiled Laws, 1915, § 15403; Montana,
Penal Code, 1921, § 11518; Nebraska, Compiled Statutes, 1922, § 7115; Nevada, Revised
Laws, 1912, §§ 4608, 6572(18); New York, Consolidated Laws, c. 40, § 1423(6); North
Dakota, Compiled Laws, 1913, § 10231; Ohio, Page's General Code, 1926, § 13402;
Oklahoma, Session Laws, 1923, c. 46; Oregon, Olson's Laws, 1920, § 2265; South Dakota,
Revised Code, 1919, § 4312; Tennessee, Shannon's Code, 1919, §§ 1839, 1840; Utah,
Compiled Laws, 1917, § 8433; Virginia, Code, 1924, § 4477(2), (3); Washington, Pierce's
Code, 1921, § 8976(18); Wisconsin, Statutes, 1927, § 348.37; Wyoming, Compiled Statutes,
1920, § 7148. Compare State v. Behringer, 19 Ariz. 502; State v. Norsko, 76
Wash. 472.
In the following states. it is a criminal offense for a company
engaged in the transmission of messages by telegraph and/or telephone, or its employees,
or, in many instances, persons conniving with them, to disclose or to assist in the
disclosure of any message: Alabama, Code, 1923, §§ 5543, 5545; Arizona, Revised
Statutes, 1913, Penal Code, §§ 621, 623, 691; Arkansas, Crawford & Moses Digest,
1921, § 10250; California, Deering's Penal Code, 1927, §§ 619, 621, 639, 641; Colorado,
Compiled Laws, 1921, §§ 6966, 6968, 6970; Connecticut, General Statutes, 1918, § 6292;
Florida, Revised General Statutes, 1920, §§ 5754, 5755; Idaho, Compiled Statutes, 1919,
§§ 8568, 8570; Illinois, Revised Statutes, 1927, c. 134, §§ 7, 7a; Indiana, Burns'
Revised Statutes, 1926, § 2862; Iowa, Code, 1924, § 8305; Louisiana, Acts, 1918, c. 134,
p. 228; Maine, Revised Statutes, 1916, c. 60, § 24; Maryland, Bagby's Code, 1926, § 489;
Michigan, Compiled Statutes, 1915, § 15104; Minnesota, General Statutes, 1923, §§
10423, 10424; Mississippi, Hemingway's Code, 1927, § 1174; Missouri, Revised Statutes,
1919, § 3605; Montana, Penal Code, 1921, § 11494; Nebraska, Compiled Statutes, 1922, §
7088; Nevada, Revised Laws, 1912, §§ 4603, 4605, 4609, 4631; New Jersey, Compiled
Statutes, 1910, p. 5319; New York, Consolidated Laws, c. 40, §§ 552, 553; North
Carolina, Consolidated Statutes, 1919, §§ 4497, 4498, 4499; North Dakota, Compiled Laws,
1913, § 10078; Ohio, Page's General Code, 1926, §§ 13388, 13419; Oklahoma, Session
Laws, 1923, c. 46; Oregon, Olson's Laws, 1920, §§ 2260, 2262, 2266; Pennsylvania,
Statutes, 1920, §§ 6306, 6308, 6309; Rhode Island, General Laws, 1923, § 6104; South
Dakota, Revised Code, 1919, §§ 4346, 9801; Tennessee, Shannon's Code, 1919, §§ 1837,
1838; Utah, Compiled Laws, 1917, §§ 8403, 8405, 8434; Washington, Pierce's Code, 1921,
§§ 8982, 8983, Wisconsin, Statutes, 1927, § 348.36.
The Alaskan Penal Code, Act of March 3, 1899, c. 429, 30 Stat. 1253,
1278, provides that,
if any officer, agent, operator, clerk, or employee
of any telegraph company, or any other person, shall willfully divulge to any other person
than the party from whom the same was received, or to whom the same was addressed, or his
agent or attorney, any message received or sent, or intended to be sent, over any
telegraph line, or the contents, substance, purport, effect, or meaning of such message,
or any part thereof, . . . the person so offending shall be deemed guilty of a
misdemeanor, and shall be punished by a fine not to exceed one thousand dollars or
imprisonment not to exceed one year, or by both such fine and imprisonment, in the
discretion of the court.
The Act of October 29, 1918, c.197, 40 Stat. 1017, provided:
That whoever, during the period of governmental
operation of the telephone and telegraph systems of the United States . . . , shall,
without authority and without the knowledge and consent of the other users thereof, except
as may be necessary for operation of the service, tap any telegraph or telephone line, or
willfully interfere with the operation of such telephone and telegraph systems or with the
transmission of any telephone or telegraph message, or with the delivery of any such
message, or whoever being employed in any such telephone or telegraph service, shall
divulge the contents of any such telephone or telegraph message to any person not duly
authorized to receive the same, shall be fined not exceeding $1,000 or imprisoned for not
more than one year, or both.
The Radio Act, February 23, 1927, c. 169, § 27, 44 Stat. 1162,
1172, provides that
no person not being authorized by the sender shall
intercept any message and divulge or publish the contents, substance, purport, effect, or
meaning of such intercepted message to any person.
14. The above figures relate to Case No. 493. In Nos. 532-533, the
Government evidence fills 278 pages, of which 140 are recitals of the evidence obtained by
wiretapping.
15. According to the Government's brief, p. 41, "The
Prohibition Unit of the Treasury disclaims it [wiretapping], and the Department of Justice
has frowned on it." See also "Prohibition Enforcement," 69th
Congress,2d Session, Senate Doc. No.198, pp. IV, V, 13, 15, referred to Committee, January
25, 1927; also same, Part 2.
16. See Hannay v. Eve, 3 Cranch 242, 247; Bank of the
United States v. Owens, 2 Pet. 527, 538; Bartle v. Coleman, 4 Pet. 184, 188; Kennett
v. Chambers, 14 How. 38, 52; Marshall v. Baltimore & Ohio R.R. Co., 16 How.
314, 334; Tool Co. v. Norris, 2 Wall 45, 54; The Ouachita Cotton, 6 Wall.
521, 532; Coppell v. Hall, 7 Wall. 542; Forsyth v. Woods, 11 Wall. 484, 486;
Hanauer v. Doane, 12 Wall. 342, 349; Trist v. Child, 21 Wall. 441, 448; Meguire
v. Corwine, 101 U.S. 108, 111; Oscanyan v. Arms Co., 103 U.S. 261; Irwin v.
Williar, 110 U.S. 499, 510; Woodstock Iron Co. v. Richmond & Danville Extension
Co., 129 U.S. 643; Gibbs v. Consolidated Gas Co., 130 U.S. 396, 411; Embrey
v. Jemison, 131 U.S. 336, 348; West v. Camden, 135 U.S. 507, 521; McMullen
v. Hoffman, 174 U.S. 639, 654; Hazelton v. Sheckells, 202 U.S. 71; Crocker
v. United States, 240 U.S. 74, 78. Compare Holman v. Johnson, 1 Cowp. 341.
17. See Creath's Administrator v. Sims, 5 How. 192, 204; Kennett
v. Chambers, 14 How. 38, 49; Randall v. Howard, 2 Black, 585, 586; Wheeler
v. Sage, 1 Wall. 518, 530; Dent v. Ferguson, 132 U.S. 50, 64; Pope
Manufacturing Co. v. Gormully, 144 U.S. 224, 236; Miller v. Ammon, 145 U.S.
421, 425; Hazelton v. Sheckells, 202 U.S. 71, 79. Compare International News
Service v. Associated Press, 248 U.S. 215, 245.
18. Compare State v. Simmons, 39 Kan. 262, 264-265; State
v. Miller, 44 Mo.App. 159, 163-164; In re Robinson, 29 Neb. 135; Harris v.
State, 15 Tex.App. 629, 634-635, 639.
19. See Armstrong v. Toler, 11 Wheat. 258; Brooks v.
Martin, 2 Wall 70; Planters' Bank v. Union Bank, 16 Wall. 483, 499-500; Houston
& Texas Central R.R. Co. v. Texas, 177 U.S. 66, 99; Bothwell v. Buckbee, Mears
Co., 275 U.S. 274.
20. See Lutton v. Benin, 11 Mod. 50; Barlow v. Hall, 2
Anst. 461; Wells v. Gurney, 8 Barn. & Cress. 769; Ilsley v. Nichols, 12
Pick. 270; Carpenter v. Spooner, 2 Sandf. 717; Metcalf v. Clark, 41 Barb.
45; Williams ads. Reed, 29 N.J.L. 385; Hill v. Goodrich, 32 Conn. 588; Townsend
v. Smith, 47 Wis. 623; Blandin v. Ostrander, 239 Fed. 700; Harkin v.
Brundage, 276 U.S. 36, id., 604.
21. Coppell v. Hall, 7 Wall. 542, 558; Oscanyan v. Arms
Co., 103 U.S. 261, 267; Higgins v. McCrea, 116 U.S. 671, 685. Compare Evans
v. Richardson, 3 Mer. 469; Norman v. Cole, 3 Esp. 253; Northwestern Salt Co.
v. Electrolytic Alkali Co., [1913] 3 K.B. 422.
BUTLER, J., Dissenting Opinion
MR. JUSTICE BUTLER, dissenting.
I sincerely regret that I cannot support the opinion and judgments
of the Court in these cases. [p*486]
The order allowing the writs of certiorari operated to limit
arguments of counsel to the constitutional question. I do not participate in the
controversy that has arisen here as to whether the evidence was inadmissible because the
mode of obtaining it was unethical and a misdemeanor under state law. I prefer to say
nothing concerning those questions, because they are not within the jurisdiction taken by
the order.
The Court is required to construe the provision of the Fourth
Amendment that declares:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses,
papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not-be violated.
The Fifth Amendment prevents the use of evidence obtained through
searches and seizures in violation of the rights of the accused protected by the Fourth
Amendment.
The single question for consideration is this: may the Government,
consistently with that clause, have its officers whenever they see fit, tap wires, listen
to, take down, and report the private messages and conversations transmitted by
telephones?
The United States maintains that
The "wiretapping" operations of the federal prohibition
agents were not a "search and seizure" in violation of the security of the
"persons, houses, papers and effects" of the petitioners in the constitutional
sense or within the intendment of the Fourth Amendment.
The Court, adhering to and reiterating the principles laid down and
applied in prior decisions [*] construing the search and seizure clause, in substance
adopts the contention of the Government.
The question at issue depends upon a just appreciation of the facts.
[p*487]
Telephones are used generally for transmission of messages
concerning official, social, business and personal affairs, including communications that
are private and privileged -- those between physician and patient, lawyer and client,
parent and child, husband and wife. The contracts between telephone companies and users
contemplate the private use of the facilities employed in the service. The communications
belong to the parties between whom they pass. During their transmission, the exclusive use
of the wire belongs to the persons served by it. Wiretapping involves interference with
the wire while being used. Tapping the wires and listening in by the officers literally
constituted a search for evidence. As the communications passed, they were heard and taken
down.
In Boyd v. United States, 116 U.S. 616, there was no
"search or seizure" within the literal or ordinary meaning of the words, nor was
Boyd -- if these constitutional provisions were read strictly according to the letter --
compelled in a "criminal case" to be a "witness" against himself. The
statute, there held unconstitutional because repugnant to the search and seizure clause,
merely authorized judgment for sums claimed by the Government on account of revenue if the
defendant failed to produce his books, invoices and papers. The principle of that case has
been followed, developed and applied in this and many other courts. And it is in harmony
with the rule of liberal construction that always has been applied to provisions of the
Constitution safeguarding personal rights (Byars v. United States, 273 U.S. 28,
32), as well as to those granting governmental powers. McCulloch v. Maryland, 4
Wheat. 316, 404, 406, 407, 421. Marbury v. Madison, 1 Cranch 137, 153, 176. Cohens
v. Virginia, 6 Wheat. 264. Myers v. United States, 272 U.S. 52.
This Court has always construed the Constitution in the light of the
principles upon which it was founded. [p*488] The direct operation
or literal meaning of the words used do not measure the purpose or scope of its
provisions. Under the principles established and applied by this Court, the Fourth
Amendment safeguards against all evils that are like and equivalent to those embraced
within the ordinary meaning of its words. That construction is consonant with sound
reason, and in full accord with the course of decisions since McCulloch v. Maryland.
That is the principle directly applied in the Boyd case.
When the facts in these cases are truly estimated, a fair
application of that principle decides the constitutional question in favor of the
petitioners. With great deference, I think they should be given a new trial.
* Ex parte Jackson, 96 U.S. 727. Boyd v.
United States, 116 U.S. 616. Weeks v. United States, 232 U.S. 383. Silverthorne
Lumber Co. v. United States, 251 U.S. 385. Gouled v. United States, 255 U.S.
298. Amos v. United States, 255 U.S. 313.
STONE, J., Dissenting Opinion
MR. JUSTICE STONE, dissenting.