Katz V. US Supreme Court Case Study

In the case of Katz v. United states, 1967, The FBI agents acted on a suspicion that Katz maybe transmitting gambling information over the phone to other people in other states. Katz was using a public phone booth to conduct the transactions of information ("Findlaw's United States Supreme Court Case And Opinions."). The FBI agents then proceeded to attach an eavesdropping device to the outside of the phone booth to record his conversations. With all the recoding that the FBI could get, they charged Katz with an eight - count indictment for the illegal transmission of wagering information to several states and he was convicted of those charges ("Findlaw's United States Supreme Court Case And Opinions.").

Katz filed an appeal and challenged his conviction by saying that the recordings violated his Fourth Amendment right to privacy while using the phone and could not be used against him. The Court of Appeals heard the case and affirmed the conviction and stated that they found no violation of the Fourth Amendment ("Katz V. United States"). The Court of Appeals based this on the fact that there was no physical entrance into the area of where the defendant was by the FBI agents. The case did go to the United States Supreme Court to be heard. The Supreme Court did
United States was meant to expand the boundaries of the Fourth Amendment by making it more flexible, with the purpose of protecting citizens against invasive methods of surveillance from the government. Prior to this case the Court had ruled in the Olmstead v. U.S. that wiretapping did not violate a Fourth amendment violation since the government did not control the telephone wires and the agents did not trespass onto the property of Olmstead and it was gathered by hearing (souza). The Court said that there was no search or seizure since the government did not go onto the property or seized any papers that are protected under the Fourth Amendment ("Katz V. United