NARDONE ET AL. v. UNITED
STATES - December 20, 1937 1. In view of the provisions of § 605 of the
Communications Act of 1934, 47 U. S. C. § 605, evidence obtained by federal agents by
tapping telephone wires and intercepting messages is not admissible in a criminal trial in
the federal district court. P. 382.
2. In the provision of § 605 of the Communications Act of 1934, that "no person
not being authorized by the sender shall intercept any communication and divulge or
publish the existence, contents, substance, purport, effect or meaning of such intercepted
communication to any person; . . ." the phrase "no person" embraces federal
agents engaged in the detection of crime; and to "divulge" an intercepted
communication to "any person" embraces testimony in a court as to the contents
of such a communication. P. 383.
3. Evidence in congressional committee reports indicating that the major purpose of the
Federal Communications Act was the transfer of jurisdiction over wire and radio
communication to the newly constituted Federal Communications Commission, and other
circumstances in the legislative history of the Act, held insufficient to negative the
plain mandate of the provisions of § 605 forbidding wire-tapping. P. 382.
4. Whether wire-tapping as an aid in the detection and punishment of crime should be
permitted to federal agents is a question of policy for the determination of the Congress.
P. 383.
5. The canon that the general words of a statute do not include the Government or
affect its rights, unless that construction be clear and indisputable from the language of
the Act, is inapplicable to this case; but applicable is the principle that the sovereign
is embraced by general words of a statute intended to prevent injury and wrong. Pp.
383-384. |