The government dropped its request, although Hoover publicly admitted the FBI was actively engaged in wiretapping. Kennedy's request for a federal wiretapping law.
The law was passed in response to various criminal justice reforms as well as recent Supreme Court rulings that individuals had a reasonable expectation of privacy in telephone conversations. Strong, who was Mayor at the time, gave the project his blessing and for years after that wiretapping flourished secretly. Lines were usually tapped right in the cellar of the house or at an outside wall box. There was an uproar when people got wind of the prevalence of wiretapping.
An investigation of public utilities in called attention to it. Those, of course, were war days and eavesdropping of all kinds was widely encouraged. The government was tapping thousands of lines. A complete central-office switchboard had been set up in the New York Custom House, with taps running into it from all parts of the city. Every time a suspected alien lifted his receiver a light showed on this board and a stenographer, with headset clamped on, took a record of the conversation.
Drawing itself up to its corporate height, it assumed a haughty manner toward detectives and since that time the company officially has refused to assist in tapping.
To make matters worse, the wiring system grew more and more complicated. Today there are nearly 1,, telephones in the city, and even an experienced wire-tapper would be unable to find a particular circuit if he did not know the right people in strategic telephone posts.
That is why most police wire-tappers, following the precedent of the man who introduced the science in the department, are former employees of the Telephone Company. They have not only the background of an inside view of the system, but friends in the organization upon whom they count for surreptitious assistance.
Moreover, an experienced wire-tapper who is familiar with the trade terms used by Telephone Company workers is able to pose convincingly as an employee when he wants to learn the location of a particular set of wires. With the necessary information he can go out, find the circuit, make his tap, run his extension wires to an empty flat or office, and prepare to listen.
Wire-tappers are seldom caught at their work. Detectives are aware of this routine and, when the five-day period has expired hook right in again. Foreign noises on the line are more apt to be caused by worn-off insulation, dampness in the cables, or some other natural disarrangement.
Wherever possible, he fastens the wires of his instrument to nut-and-washer connections found in panel boxes, the terminals from which extension lines are run.
Such connections are practically swing-proof. Police wire-tappers are a peculiar, clannish breed, jealous of the good name of their calling. They bridle at the slightest implication that their trade is not altogether manly and sporting. Swayze when, as general counsel for the Telephone Company, he condoned the practice during the wartime investigation. That gave the calling a new dignity and the phrase is used a lot now when tappers are called upon to testify in court. Despite these lofty pretensions, the profession has its own little jokes, on a somewhat lower plane.
When they find life tedious at the listening posts, wire-tappers sometimes entertain themselves by crossing two sets of wires. During a recent vice-investigation case they played this trick on a simple Irish laborer who was calling his wife from a barbershop where the wires were tapped because the place was considered a likely gathering spot for panderers.
The tappers got a quick-witted lady of the town on another wire and joined the two circuits. The bawd caught on and pretended the Irishman was beside her and told his wife he was her favorite customer. His wife would have none of his explanations.
The wire-tappers found this highly amusing. In the same blunt manner, the police were tickled by a misfortune that upset two of their fellow-detectives some time ago. Both were expert wire-tappers and should have known better. In Clapper v.
The federal district court had dismissed the case for lack of standing, but the Second U. Circuit Court of Appeals had reversed this ruling. Justice Samuel Alito wrote the decision for five members of the Court, rejecting their arguments to establish standing. However, in a ruling that has been noted as pushing back on certain mass surveillance activities , the Supreme Court in Carpenter v. United States ruled that an individual maintains a legitimate expectation of privacy in the record of his physical movements as captured through cell-site location information.
This article first was published in and has been updated. It has been updated by other First Amendment Encyclopedia contributors. Cogan, Neil H. New York: Oxford University Press, Fisher, Louis. American Constitutional Law. Durham, N. He argued that authorities had violated his rights--but the court upheld his conviction, saying eavesdropping was not a physical invasion of privacy.
In , U. Martin Luther King Jr.
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