Olmstead v. United States - Significance

In this, the first Supreme Court case to consider the legality of wiretaps, the Court found that because they did not involve private property, they did not violate the ban on illegal search and seizure. Later the Court would overrule Olmstead.

In January of 1919, the states ratified the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which instituted a nationwide prohibition on alcoholic beverages. Later that year, Congress passed the National Prohibition Enforcement Act, also called the Volstead Act, which prohibited the manufacture and distribution of intoxicating beverages. Roy Olmstead, along with two others, was accused of violating the Volstead Act by conspiring to transport and sell liquor. The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington allowed the government to introduce evidence obtained through use of wiretaps placed in the defendants' homes and offices. This evidence proved convincing, and the defendants were convicted. After appeals to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals failed, they applied to the U.S. Supreme Court for review of their convictions.

Olmstead and his co-conspirators charged that the evidence used to convict them had been illegally obtained and therefore should not have been admitted at trial. They claimed that the government had violated their Fourth Amendment protection from illegal search and seizure and their Fifth Amendment protection against compelled self-incrimination.