Olmstead v. United States: Supreme Court Case on Fourth Amendment & Phone Calls | Slides Business

Olmstead v. United States, 277 US 438 - Supreme Court 1928

Argued February 20, 21, 1928

Decided June 4, 1928

CERTIORARI TO THE CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

MR. CHIEF JUSTICE TAFT delivered the opinion

of the Court.

These cases are confined to the single question

whether the use of evidence of private telephone

conversations between the defendants and others,

intercepted by means of wire tapping, 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.

The evidence in the records discloses a conspiracy of

amazing magnitude to import, possess and sell liquor

unlawfully. It involved the employment of not less

than fifty persons and a central office manned with

[many people]…Sales exceeded two millions of

dollars in a year.

Olmstead was the leading conspirator and the general

manager of the business. 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 [underground] caches. 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 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."

It will be helpful to consider the chief cases in this

Court which bear upon the construction of these

Amendments.

[In] Weeks v. United States, 232 U.S. 383, after [the

defendant’s] arrest other police officers 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…[without]

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Olmstead v. United States, 277 US 438 - Supreme Court 1928

Argued February 20, 21, 1928 Decided June 4, 1928 . CERTIORARI TO THE CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT MR. CHIEF JUSTICE TAFT delivered the opinion of the Court. These cases are confined to the single question whether the use of evidence of private telephone conversations between the defendants and others, intercepted by means of wire tapping, 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. The evidence in the records discloses a conspiracy of amazing magnitude to import, possess and sell liquor unlawfully. It involved the employment of not less than fifty persons and a central office manned with [many people]…Sales exceeded two millions of dollars in a year. Olmstead was the leading conspirator and the general manager of the business. 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 [underground] caches. 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 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." It will be helpful to consider the chief cases in this Court which bear upon the construction of these Amendments. [In] Weeks v. United States, 232 U.S. 383, after [the defendant’s] arrest other police officers 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…[without]

a search warrant... 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 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 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…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.. [that were later] introduced in evidence. 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, forbade introduction [of evidence] 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 unimportant. But in the Weeks case, and those which followed, this Court decided with great emphasis that the protection of the Fourth Amendment would be much impaired unless it was held 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. Gouled v. United States ’ …authority …must be confined to the precise state of facts disclosed by the record…A stealthy entrance in such circumstances 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. The Fourth Amendment may have proper application to a sealed letter in the mail because of the constitutional provision for the Postoffice Department and the relations between the Government and those who pay to secure protection of their sealed letters. It is plainly within the words of the Amendment 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.

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. To Lord Camden, a far slighter intrusion seemed "subversive of all the comforts of society." Can it be that the Constitution affords no protection against such invasions of individual security? …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, 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. …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 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. …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 in a criminal proceeding, of facts ascertained by such intrusion must be deemed a violation of the Fifth…

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Olmstead v. United States, 277 US 438 - Supreme Court 1928