Opinion · Supreme Court of the United States

Goldman v. United States

Goldman v. United States, 316 U.S. 129 (1942)

Type
Opinion
Court
Supreme Court of the United States
Jurisdiction
Federal
Date
1942-04-27
Topic
general

How later courts describe this case

  • indicating that private conversation could be a protected “effect” within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment
  • observing that "intercept” under the Communications Act "indicates the taking or seizure by the way or before arrival at the destined place.”
  • evidence admissible where federal agents used detectaphone attached to wall of one room to overhear conversations in adjoining room
  • "The natural meaning of the term 'intercept’ ... indicates the taking or seizure by the way or before arrival at the destined place.”
  • warrantless electronic eavesdropping on telephone conversation from adjoining room not a fourth amendment violation
  • use of detectaphone to hear conver­ sations in office next door
  • use of a "detectaphone" held against the wall of adjoining office to overhear conversation of defendant was not violation of the Fourth Amendment, as "what was heard ... was not made illegal by trespass or unlawful entry."
  • even with aid of detectaphone

Citator

Goldman v. United States is no longer good law, at least in part: overruled by Katz v. United States (1967). 507 later decisions cite it, 1 of them negatively.

Authority status
negative
Cited by
507 opinions
Negative treatment
1 citing opinion

Headnotes

  1. Criminal Law & Procedure — Discovery A party has no absolute right to inspect a witness's notes or memoranda where the witness does not use them in court; and where such memoranda are also part of the Government's files, a large discretion must be allowed the trial judge, whose refusal to order production will not be disturbed absent an abuse of discretion. 316 U.S. at 132
  2. Communications Law — Federal Communications Act § 605 The protection afforded by § 605 of the Federal Communications Act is of the means of communication and not of the secrecy of the conversation; words spoken into a telephone receiver do not constitute a "communication" by wire within the meaning of the Act until transmitted through the instrumentality of the telephone system. 316 U.S. at 133
  3. Communications Law — Interception The term "intercept" in § 605 of the Federal Communications Act indicates the taking or seizure of a message by the way or before arrival at the destined place, and does not connote obtaining what is to be sent before or at the moment it leaves the possession of the sender, or after or at the moment it comes into the possession of the intended receiver; accordingly, listening in an adjoining room to words spoken into a telephone receiver is not an interception of a wire communication. 316 U.S. at 133-34
  4. Criminal Law & Procedure — Fourth Amendment Evidence obtained by federal agents through a detectaphone placed against the wall of a room adjoining the defendant's office is not rendered inadmissible by a prior trespass committed by the agents in the defendant's office where the trespass did not materially aid in the use of the detectaphone. 316 U.S. at 134
  5. Constitutional Law — Fourth Amendment Search and Seizure The use by federal agents of a detectaphone, whereby conversations in a defendant's office are overheard through contact with the wall of an adjoining room, does not constitute an unreasonable search and seizure under the Fourth Amendment, and evidence so obtained is admissible in a federal court. 316 U.S. at 135
  6. Constitutional Law — Fourth Amendment No reasonable or logical distinction can be drawn, for purposes of the Fourth Amendment, between the tapping of telephone wires and the use of a detectaphone applied to the wall of a room to overhear conversations within; both are governed by the rule that the Amendment is not violated absent an official search and seizure of the person, tangible material effects, or an actual physical invasion of the home or curtilage. 316 U.S. at 134-35