◆ SpookStack

190 dis. 3 Nardone et al. vs. United States. 3 The answer of Congress to the question has been a refusal to pass any of the bills which comprehensively proposed to forbid the practice. My abhorrence of the odious practices of the town gossip, the pecping Tom, and the private eavesdropper is quite as strong as that of any of my brethren. But to put the sworn officers of the ‘law, engaged in the detection and apprehension of organized gangs of criminals, in the same category, is to lose all sense of proportion. In view of the safeguards against abuse of power furnished by the order of the Attorney General, and in the light of the deadly con- flict constantly being waged between the forees of law and order and the desperate criminals who infest the land, we well may pause to consider whether the application of the rule which forbids an in- vasion of the privacy of telephone communications is not being carried in the present case to a point where the necessity of public protection against crime is being submerged by an overflow of senti-_ mentality. I think the judgment below should be affirmed. Mr. Justice McReynotps joins in this opinion.