[1434] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: US Wiretaps Before 1968?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Steven Bellovin)
Mon Sep 8 10:59:32 1997
To: Greg Broiles <gbroiles@netbox.com>
cc: Kent Borg <kentborg@borg.org>, CRYPTOGRAPHY@c2.net
Date: Sat, 06 Sep 1997 21:53:52 -0400
From: Steven Bellovin <smb@research.att.com>
At 10:10 PM 9/5/97 -0400, Steven Bellovin wrote:
>The 1968 law was indirectly prompted by a 1967 decision. (This, btw,
>is a great opinion if you're interested in the history of wiretap and
>bugging law. For example, it notes that the first statute against
>eavesdropping was passed by California in 1862.)
Steve's exegesis of this case omitted its name and cite - it's _Katz v.
United States_, 389 US 347 (1967), on the web at
<http://www.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=389&invol=347>.
There may be something a bit odd here. The textbook I have lists the
case as Berger vs. New York, with the cite I gave -- 87 S.Ct. 1873.
That number seemed a bit odd, but the book itself is copyright 1968,
so they may have had to publish before the regular reporter picked up
the case.
I have no explanation for the different name, unless of course it's a
different case. This one was very definitely a state law at issue,
which I wouldn't expect in a case Foo vs. United States.
But you're right -- my recollection was that the 1967 wiretap case did
involve Katz.
