Katz V. The United States

Katz V. The United States
The petitioner Mr. Katz was arrested for illegal gambling, he had been gambling
over a public phone. The FBI attached an electronic recorder onto the outside of the
public phone booth. The state courts claimed this to be legal because the recording device
was on the outside of the phone and the FBI never entered the booth. The Supreme Court
Ruled in the favor of Katz. They stated that the Fourth Amendment allowed for the
protection of a person and not just a person’s property against illegal searches. The Fourth
Amendment written in 1791 states,
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and
effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated,
and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or
affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the
persons or things to be seized (Galloway 214).
The court was unsure on weather or not they should consider a public telephone booth as
an area protected by the fourth amendment. The court did state that:
The Fourth Amendment protects people, not places. What a person
knowingly exposes to the public, even in his own home or office, is not a
subject of Fourth Amendment protection. But what he seeks to preserve as
private, even in an area accessible to the public, may be constitutionally
protected...Searches conducted without warrants have been held unlawful
notwithstanding facts unquestionably showing probable cau...

Katz V. The United States

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