Admissibility of Evidence Obtained by Wire Tapping

The United States Supreme Court was recently called upon to consider a novel aspect of the problem of search and seizure and the admissibility of illegally obtained evidence. Several persons had been convicted of a conspiracy to violate the National Prohibition Act. The information which led to the discovery of the conspiracy and its nature and extent was largely obtained by intercepting messages on the telephones of the conspirators by four federal prohibition officers. The primary question considered by the Supreme Court was whether the use of such evidence of private telephone conversations between the defendants and others, intercepted by means of wire tapping by federal officers, amounted to a violation of the Fourth and Fifth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States.