Berger v. New York
| Berger v. New York | |
|---|---|
 L. Ed. 2d 1040 | |
| Case history | |
| Prior | Certiorari to the Court of Appeals of New York |
| Holding | |
| The Court facially invalidated a New York statute (N.Y. Code of Crim. Proc. § 813-a) which allowed for electronic eavesdropping without the procedural safeguards required by the Fourth Amendment. | |
| Court membership | |
| |
| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Clark, joined by Warren, Douglas, Brennan, Fortas |
| Concurrence | Douglas |
| Concurrence | Stewart |
| Dissent | Black |
| Dissent | Harlan |
| Dissent | White |
| Laws applied | |
| U.S. Const. amend. IV | |
Berger v. New York, 388 U.S. 41 (1967), was a United States Supreme Court decision invalidating a New York law under the Fourth Amendment, because the statute authorized electronic eavesdropping without required procedural safeguards.
Background
Under New York Code of Criminal Procedure § 813-a, police obtained an ex parte order to bug the office of attorney Ralph Berger. Based on evidence obtained by the surveillance, Berger was convicted of conspiracy to bribe a public official. The statute allowed electronic eavesdropping for up to two months upon a standard of "a reasonable ground to believe that evidence of a crime may be thus obtained." Further two-month extensions of the original order could be granted if investigators made a showing that such surveillance would be in the public interest. The statute required neither notice to the person surveilled nor any justification of such secrecy. The communications sought did not have to be described with any particularity; surveillance requests had to identify only the person targeted and the phone number to be tapped. Finally, the statute did not require a return on the warrant, so law enforcement officers did not have to account to a judge for their use of evidence gathered.
Opinion of the Court
In an opinion written by
Legacy
Academic Colin Agur argues that Berger, along with Katz v. United States, were responses by the Court to police and government abuse of telephone surveillance.[1] Berger, specifically, limited police wiretapping when it struck down the New York statute for being overly broad.
See also
References
- ^ Agur, Colin (2013). "Negotiated Order: The Fourth Amendment, Telephone Surveillance, and Social Interactions, 1878-1968". Information & Culture. 48 (4): 419–447.
External links
- Text of Berger v. New York, 388 U.S. 41 (1967) is available from: Google Scholar Justia Library of Congress Oyez (oral argument audio)