Word: wiretapping
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...anything, the Nixon Administration has been less than apologetic about the practice. Last month, in a memorandum filed during the Chicago trial of eight men charged with conspiring to incite acts of violence during the Democratic National Convention, the Justice Department claimed the inherent right to bug or wiretap-without court orders-any time it felt that the "national security" was in jeopardy, As authority for this broad power, the Government cited the President's oath to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution" from domestic subversion as well as foreign enemies. Contending that every President since Franklin Roosevelt...
...Guarantee. Many law-enforcement officials argue that the benefits of restrained wiretapping far outweigh the hazards. On the basis of his own experience as a prosecutor in the New York courts, Columbia Law Professor Richard Uviller contends that bugging is one of the most effective weapons against organized crime. A preliminary report on the effects of the wiretap provisions of the new crime-control law tends to bear him out: the 174 taps authorized by four state courts after the Omnibus Crime Bill was passed last year led to no fewer than 263 arrests. "We can't guarantee that...
Burger also questioned the practice of barring from court evidence obtained in violation of a law or a constitutional right (such as that gained by illegal wiretap). And he accused defense lawyers of "clogging the system by an excess of zeal" when they use every available legal means to clear their client...
...surveillances did violate the Fourth Amendment." Eavesdropping that is necessary to national security may well be legal, he said, and lower court judges may be free to decide that issue in chambers, without the defendant's participation. Thus, Stewart intimates, public disclosure of a bug or a wiretap may not really be necessary for a prosecution unless the judge decides that it was illegal...
Such attitudes raise the hackles of those who argue that criminals are already overprotected. One major specific of the attack on Clark is that he opposes wiretapping except in cases involving national security. After taking over as Attorney General, Clark ordered the Justice Department to review all cases for the purpose of discarding evidence that might be "tainted" because it was obtained by wiretap or bugging. He has firmly refused to make use of last June's Omnibus Crime Act, which permits court-authorized wiretaps in the collection of evidence for certain criminal offenses. Partly as a result, morale...