Silverman v. United States/Concurrence Douglas

by William O. Douglas

United States Supreme Court

365 U.S. 505

Silverman  v.  United States

 Argued: Dec. 5, 1960. --- Decided: March 6, 1961

Mr. Justice DOUGLAS, concurring.

My trouble with stare decisis in this field is that it leads us to a matching of cases on irrelevant facts. An electronic device on the outside wall of a house is a permissible invasion of privacy according to Goldman v. United States, 316 U.S. 129, 62 S.Ct. 993, 86 L.Ed. 1322, while an electronic device that penetrates the wall, as here, is not. Yet the invasion of privacy is as great in one case as in the other. The concept of 'an unauthorized physical penetration into the premises,' on which the present decision rests seems to me to be beside the point. Was not the wrong in both cases done when the intimacies of the home were tapped, recorded, or revealed? The depth of the penetration of the electronic device-even the degree of its remoteness from the inside of the house-is not the measure of the injury. There is in each such case a search that should be made, if at all, only on a warrant issued by a magistrate. I stated my views in On Lee v. United States, 343 U.S. 747, 72 S.Ct. 967, 96 L.Ed. 1270, and adhere to them. Our concern should not be with the trivialities of the local law of trespass, as the opinion of the Court indicates. But neither should the command of the Fourth Amendment be limited by nice distinctions turning on the kind of electronic equipment employed. Rather our sole concern should be with whether the privacy of the home was invaded. Since it was invaded here, and since no search warrant was obtained as required by the Fourth Amendment and Rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, 18 U.S.C.A., I agree with the Court that the judgment of conviction must be set aside.

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