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39 Cornell L. Q. 195 (1953-1954)
Public Security and Wire Tapping

handle is hein.journals/clqv39 and id is 217 raw text is: CORNELL LAW QUARTERLY VOLUME 39 WINTER, 1954 NumExi 2 THE PUBLIC SECURITY AND WIRE TAPPING Herbert Brownell, Jr.* Wire tapping has been a matter of public concern, challenge and raging controversy for more than twenty-five years. Since it invades the privacy of the individual, it presents a problem that touches each of us. Every- one agrees that unrestrained and unrestricted wire tapping by private persons for private gain is dirty business which should be stopped. Many persons believe that even if wire tapping is properly controlled and authorized, it is an intolerable instrument of tyranny, impinges on the liberties of the people and should not be sanctioned anywhere in a free country. To many other persons, surveillance of the wires by law enforce- ment officers under strict official supervision in cases involving national security and defense as well as other heinous crimes, such as kidnapping, is an essential and reasonable adjustment between the rights of the indi- vidual and the needs and interests of society. In our search for a new solution to this old problem, we are aided somewhat by recent experience and disclosures of successful communist espionage penetration in our government and by betrayal of our vital secrets. Yet it is precisely at such a time as this when popular opinion and passion run so high that we must be most careful that reason and justice prevail and that the law alone shall provide the test by which evi- dence is obtained and men are tried. Only in this way may we avoid total- itarian techniques and tactics in preserving our democratic ideals and freedom. There is now pending in Congress a number of bills to regulate wire tapping. Before discussing these, I plan to trace briefly the history and background of wiretap laws; the construction placed on these laws both by the courts and my predecessors at the Justice Department; the way in which these laws have thwarted prosecution of spies, subversives and espionage agents; and pending proposals before Congress which will remedy existing defects in the law. * See Contributors' section, Masthead, p. 271, for biographical data.

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