Opinion

Katz v. United States

  • 389 U.S. 347
  • 88 S. Ct. 507
  • 19 L. Ed. 2d 576
  • 1967 U.S. LEXIS 2
Court
Supreme Court of the United States
Filed
Dec 18, 1967
Status
Published
Author
White
On the bench
Black, Brennan, Douglas, Harlan, Marshall, Stewart, White
Cited by
11,133 cases
Authority
More cited than 24.1%

Reported superseded by statute, as recognized in United States v. Koyomejian — not on the Supreme Court's list

finding that the officers would have had a right to sniff the students’ lockers and automobiles and, therefore, the odors detected by their canines were not protected by the Fourth Amendment because “the dog’s olfactory sense merely ‘enhances’ that of the police officer” rather than providing a new method of detection

How later courts described this case

  • finding that the officers would have had a right to sniff the students’ lockers and automobiles and, therefore, the odors detected by their canines were not protected by the Fourth Amendment because “the dog’s olfactory sense merely ‘enhances’ that of the police officer” rather than providing a new method of detection
  • holding, in a constitutional context, that affirmative acts of concealment create an expectation of privacy because ”[o]ne who ... shuts the [phone booth door] behind him, and pays ... to place a call is surely entitled to assume the words he utters into the mouthpiece will not be broadcast to the world”
  • holding that “the Fourth amendment protects people, not places” and that when an individual “seeks to preserve [something] as private” and this expectation of privacy is “constitutionally protected,” official intrusion into that privacy is a search that requires a warrant supported by probable cause
  • explaining that "the Constitution requires 'that the deliberate, impartial judgment of a judicial officer ... be interposed between the citizen and the police' " (alteration in original) (quoting Wong Sun v. United States , 371 U.S. 471, 481-82, 83 S.Ct. 407, 9 L.Ed.2d 441 (1963) )

Written by the judges who cited it.

Later courts went against this

  • Reported superseded by statute, as recognized in United States v. Koyomejian — not on the Supreme Court's list

    389 U.S. 347, 357 (1967), superseded by statute as stated in United States v. Koyomejian, 946 F.2d 1450, 1455
    Court of Appeals for the Ninth CircuitOct 15, 1991by statuteunconfirmed confidenceRead it
  • Questioned by United States v. Errol B. Resnick, 455 F.2d 1127 (1972)

    The trial judge concluded that since Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 88 S.Ct. 507, 19 L.Ed.2d 576 (1967), there has been serious question of continued vitality of the open field doctrine, but he elected to follow the post-Katz cases of Fullbright v. United States, 392 F.2d 432 (10th Cir.), cert. denied, 393 U.S. 830, 89 S.Ct. 97, 21 L.Ed.2d 101 (1968), and United States v. Campbell, 395 F.2d 848 (4th Cir.), cert…
    Court of Appeals for the Fifth CircuitJun 2, 1972Read it
  • Questioned by State v. Alexander, 170 N.J. Super. 298 (1979)

    The continuing validity of the curtilage doctrine was called into question after Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 351, 88 S.Ct. 507, 511, 19 L.Ed.2d 576 (1967), which held that "the Fourth Amendment protects people, not places.
    New Jersey Superior Court Appellate DivisionJul 18, 1979Read it
  • Questioned by GR v. State, 638 P.2d 191 (1981)

    However, the viability of the "curtilage" test has been questioned since Katz, and most courts now attempt to determine those areas in which the person challenging the search has a reasonable expectation of privacy.
    Court of Appeals of AlaskaDec 24, 1981Read it

Distinguished

  • Distinguished by Fearnow v. Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co., 104 Md. App. 1 (1995)

    Every case that we have discovered interpreting a telephone conversation under the federal wiretap act has held that the Katz reasonable expectation of privacy standard is inapplicable to wire communications.
    Court of Special Appeals of MarylandJan 11, 1995Read it
  • Distinguished by State v. Milligan, 40 Ohio St. 3d 341 (1988)

    In support of this view, appellee cites Katz v. United States (1967), 389 U.S. 347. Katz, however, is inapposite since its focus was upon evidence which was allegedly the product of an illegal search and seizure.
    Ohio Supreme CourtDec 30, 1988Read it
  • Distinguished by People v. Catania, 427 Mich. 447 (1986)

    Justice Brennan concurred in the White result because, in his view, Katz was inapplicable to behavior which occurred before the decision in Katz, p 755.
    Michigan Supreme CourtDec 30, 1986Read it
  • Distinguished by Lee v. State, 489 So. 2d 1382 (1986)

    In Everett this Court distinguished the situation which it faced from that in Katz on the basis of the consent of one of the parties (i.e., the informant) to the compromised conversation:
    Mississippi Supreme CourtMay 21, 1986Read it

The opinion

Mr. Justice White,

concurring.

I agree that the official surveillance of petitioner’s telephone conversations in a public booth must be sub *363 jected to the test of reasonableness under the Fourth Amendment and that on the record now before us the particular surveillance undertaken was unreasonable absent a warrant properly authorizing it. This application of the Fourth Amendment need not interfere with legitimate needs of law enforcement. *

In joining the Court’s opinion, I note the Court’s acknowledgment that there are circumstances in which it is reasonable to search without a warrant. In this connection, in footnote 23 the Court points out that today’s decision does not reach national security cases. Wiretapping to protect the security of the Nation has been authorized by successive Presidents. The present Administration would apparently save national security cases from restrictions against wiretapping. See Berger v. New York, 388 U. S. 41, 112-118 (1967) (White, J., *364 dissenting). We should not require the warrant procedure and the magistrate’s judgment if the President of the United States or his chief legal officer, the Attorney General, has considered the requirements of national security and authorized electronic surveillance as reasonable.

In previous eases, which are undisturbed by today’s decision, the Court has upheld, as reasonable under the Fourth Amendment, admission at trial of evidence obtained (1) by an undercover police agent to whom a defendant speaks without knowledge that he is in the employ of the police, Hoffa v. United States, 385 U. S. 293 (1966); (2) by a recording device hidden on the person of such an informant, Lopez v. United States, 373 U. S. 427 (1963); Osborn v. United States, 385 U. S. 323 (1966); and (3) by a policeman listening to the secret micro-wave transmissions of an agent conversing with the defendant in another location, On Lee v. United States, 343 U. S. 747 (1952). When one man speaks to another he takes all the risks ordinarily inherent in so doing, including the risk that the man to whom he speaks will make public what he has heard. The Fourth Amendment does not protect against unreliable (or law-abiding) associates, Hofia v. United States, supra. It is but a logical and reasonable extension of this principle that a man take the risk that his hearer, free to memorize what he hears for later verbatim repetitions, is instead recording it or transmitting it to another. The present case deals with an entirely different situation, for as the Court emphasizes the petitioner “sought to exclude . . . the uninvited ear,” and spoke under circumstances in which a reasonable person would assume that uninvited ears were not listening.

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

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