OLMSTEAD ET AL. v. UNITED STATES; GREEN ET AL. v. SAME; McINNIS v. SAME., 277 U.S. 438

Summary

After defendants' telephones were tapped without trespassing upon defendants' property, defendants were convicted of conspiracy to violate the National Prohibition Act. When the appellate court affirmed their convictions, defendants sought certiorari review. The Court affirmed. The wire tapping of telephone conversations did not amount to a search or seizure within the meaning of U.S. Const. amend. IV. There was no room for applying U.S. Const. amend. V unless U.S. Const. amend. IV was first violated. U.S. Const. amend. IV was not violated unless there was an official search and seizure of a 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. There was no evidence of compulsion to induce defendants to talk over their many telephones. They were continually and voluntarily transacting business without knowledge of the interception. The evidence was secured by the use of the...