Source: http://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/365/458
Timestamp: 2013-12-19 19:02:30
Document Index: 577719558

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 605', '§ 605', '§ 605', '§ 2283', '§ 605', '§ 2283']

Burton N. PUGACH, Petitioner, v. Hon. Isidore DOLLINGER, District Attorney of Bronx County, et al. | Supreme Court | LII / Legal Information Institute
Supreme Court aboutsearch liibulletin subscribe previews Burton N. PUGACH, Petitioner, v. Hon. Isidore DOLLINGER, District Attorney of Bronx County, et al.
365 U.S. 458 (81 S.Ct. 650, 5 L.Ed.2d 678)
Argued: Jan. 16, 1961.
Decided: Jan. 16, 1961
[HTML] Mr. George Todaro, Miss Frances Kahn, New York City, for petitioner.
In Schwartz v. State of Texas, 344 U.S. 199, 73 S.Ct. 232, 97 L.Ed. 231, a pawnbroker was convicted as an accomplice in a robbery. Records of his telephone conversations, gotten by police eavesdropping, were admitted in evidence against him during his trial in the state court. He claimed that such evidence was inadmissible under 47 U.S.C. 605, 47 U.S.C.A. § 605.
This Court rejected that claim without even stopping to see if indeed there had been a violation of the federal statute. The rationale of that rejection was that, 'Where a state has carefully legislated so as not to render inadmissible evidence obtained and sought to be divulged in violation of the laws of the United States, this Court will not extend by implication the statute of the United States so as to invalidate the specific language of the state statute.' Id., 344 U.S. 202, 73 S.Ct. 235.
The later decision of this Court in Benanti v. United States, 355 U.S. 96, 78 S.Ct. 155, 2 L.Ed.2d 126, swept away that rationale, and Schwartz v. State of Texas, supra, today stands alone as an aberration from the otherwise vigorous enforcement this Court has given to the congressional policy embodied in 47 U.S.C. 605, 47 U.S.C.A. § 605. For in Benanti, in setting aside a federal conviction, we held that the proscription of wiretapping contained in § 605 forbade wiretapping by an authorized executive officer of the State, acting under the explicit terms of a state statute and pursuant to a warrant issued by the state judiciary. '(K)eeping in mind (the) comprehensive scheme of interstate regulation and the public policy underlying Section 605 as part of that scheme, we find that Congress, setting out a prohibition in plain terms, did not mean to allow state legislation which would contradict that section and that policy.' Id., 355 U.S. 105106, 78 S.Ct. 161. It seems incongruous to me that this sweeping congressional purpose should now be held to make a detour around the precincts of a state court. This is especially true where, as here, officials have shown such an avid taste for violating the law. See Dash, Schwartz and Knowlton, The Eavesdroppers, pp. 6869. In such circumstances, redressother than by an exclusionary ruleagainst the criminal acts of those who bear the badge of the law is neither easy nor generous. Cf. Wolf v. People of State of Colorado, 33, U.S. 25, 41, 4244, 69 S.Ct. 1359, 13691370, 93 L.Ed. 1782 (dissenting opinion).
Yet today a majority of this Court summarily holds that Schwartz v. State of Texas, supra, is still the law, and petitioner is left only with the consoling knowledge that Congress meant to protect the privacy of his telephone conversations,
while the benefits of the congressional intendment are denied him.
The strongest expression of that reluctance is found in the general prohibition of federal injunctions 'to stay proceedings in a State court.' 28 U.S.C. 2283, 28 U.S.C.A. § 2283. Although that provision bars an injunction operating on a party, after commencement of the state court proceedings, as wel as an injunction directly against the state court, Harkrader v. Wadley, 172 U.S. 148, 19 S.Ct. 119, 43 L.Ed. 399; Ex parte Young, 209 U.S. 123, 161162, 28 S.Ct. 441, 454, 52 L.Ed. 714, it is not directly involved here. Here the thrust of the relief is only to enjoin the use of wire-tap evidence, not to enjoin the action itself. Hence there is no bar to maintaining the action. Cf. Rea v. United States, 350 U.S. 214, 76 S.Ct. 292, 100 L.Ed. 233. Where, as here, the relief sought is the adjudication of collateral matters which cannot be adjudicated in the state proceedings under state law, there is no occasion to invoke the statute. 'That provision is an historical mechanism (Act of March 2, 1793, 1 Stat. 334, 335) for achieving harmony in one phase of our complicated federalism by avoiding needless friction between two systems of courts having potential jurisdiction over the same subject-matter.' Hale v. Bimco Trading Co., 306 U.S. 375, 378, 59 S.Ct. 526, 527, 83 L.Ed. 771. (Emphasis added.) Hence I do not reach the questions that would be raised if we had before us the alternative of enjoining the state action
or withholding all relief.
It is not a case where an appeal is properly delayed, so that the asserted error may be seen in the context of the whole trial, as no review at all is available. For the same reason, this is no case for the exercise of equitable discretion. If the federal question is not now protected, it can never become the basis for relief. that the other proceeding offers no remedy, the rationale of equitable discretion disappears. It becomes no more than the legal language which clothes the denial of a right in the guise of a mere procedural decision. Unless and until Schwartz v. State of Texas, supra, is overruled, the exercise of equitable discretion to deny preliminary relief from the threatened use of wire-tap evidence is wholly unjustified. Unless and until Schwartz is overruled, the beneficent effect of § 605 will be stultified by the admission of tainted evidence in state trials. The privacy of the individual, history assures us, can never be protected where its violation by state officers meets with reward rather than punishment.
28 U.S.C. 2283, 28 U.S.C.A. § 2283, provides for three classes of exception: (1) as expressly authorized by Act of Congress, (2) where necessary in aid of jurisdiction, and (3) to protect or effectuate its judgments. Cf. Toucey v. New York Life Ins. Co., 314 U.S. 118, 62 S.Ct. 139, 86 L.Ed. 100. Injunction against the commencement of state court criminal proceedings has long been the first line of defense for federally secured rights. As respects federally secured civil rights see, e.g., Truax v. Raich, 239 U.S. 33, 36 S.Ct. 7, 60 L.Ed. 131; Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 268 U.S. 510, 45 S.Ct. 571, 69 L.Ed. 1070; Terrace v. Thompson, 263 U.S. 197, 44 S.Ct. 15, 68 L.Ed. 255; Hague v. C.I.O., 307 U.S. 496, 59 S.Ct. 954, 83 L.Ed. 1423; cf. Douglas v. City of Jeannette, 319 U.S. 157, 63 S.Ct. 877, 87 L.Ed. 1324. As respects federally secured economic rights see, e.g., Hynes v. Grimes Packing Co., 337 U.S. 86, 69 S.Ct. 968, 93 L.Ed. 1231; Cline v. Frink Dairy Co., 274 U.S. 445, 47 S.Ct. 681, 71 L.Ed. 1146; Hygrade Provision Co. v. Sherman, 266 U.S. 497, 45 S.Ct. 141, 69 L.Ed. 402.