Opinion ID: 3010501
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Statutory Structure of Title III

Text: “Title III’s complex provisions regulate both interception and disclosure of communications in great detail.” United States v. Cianfrani, 573 F.2d 835, 855 (3d Cir. 1978). Various provisions of the Act are directly relevant to the jurisdictional and merits issues presented in this appeal. Before proceeding to those issues, it will be useful to describe the statutory structure of Title III and to set out the provisions that are most important to this case.5 Section 2511(1)(a) makes it a crime for any person to intentionally intercept or endeavor to intercept any wire, oral, or electronic communication. 18 U.S.C. § 2511(1)(a); see also id. § 2510 (definitions). Section 2511(1)(c) makes any disclosure of unlawfully intercepted communications a further 4 This appeal presents solely questions of law, over which we exercise plenary review. See United States v. Hayden, 64 F.3d 126, 128 (3d Cir. 1995). 5 Most of the provisions not discussed in the text relate either to manufacture and confiscation of communication intercepting devices, 18 U.S.C. §§ 2512 & 2513, or to the procedures whereby government investigative and law enforcement officers can obtain authorization to intercept communications and disclose and use the contents of them, id. §§ 2516-2519. Other sections provide for the Attorney General to seek an injunction against any person engaged in or about to engage in a felony violation of Title III, id. § 2521, and for a court authorizing an interception to order a noncomplying telecommunications carrier to comply with the order, id. § 2522. 5 violation of the statute. It provides for criminal punishment of any person who “intentionally discloses, or endeavors to disclose, to any other person the contents of any wire, oral, or electronic communication, knowing or having reason to know that the information was obtained through the interception of a wire, oral, or electronic communication in violation of this subsection.” Id. § 2511(1)(c). In addition to criminal sanctions against those who unlawfully intercept communications, the statute also provides a civil remedy. Under § 2520, “any person whose wire, oral, or electronic communication is intercepted, disclosed, or intentionally used in violation of this chapter may in a civil action recover from the person or entity which engaged in that violation such relief as may be appropriate.” Id. § 2520(a). As a third remedy for violations of § 2511, “Title III contains a strict exclusionary rule,” Cianfrani, 573 F.2d at 855, prohibiting use of intercepted wire or oral communications and the fruits thereof in specified proceedings, including, in particular, grand jury proceedings. Section 2515 provides that: Whenever any wire or oral communication has been intercepted, no part of the contents of such communication and no evidence derived therefrom may be received in evidence in any trial, hearing, or other proceeding in or before any court, grand jury, department, officer, agency, regulatory body, legislative committee, or other authority of the United States, a State, or a political subdivision thereof if the disclosure of that information would be in violation of this chapter. 18 U.S.C. § 2515. Finally, § 2518(10)(a)(i) authorizes any “aggrieved 6 person”--that is, “a person who was a party to any intercepted wire, oral, or electronic communication or a person against whom the interception was directed,” id. § 2510(11)--to move to suppress the contents of any unlawfully intercepted communication. It states: Any aggrieved person in any trial, hearing, or proceeding in or before any court, department, officer, agency, regulatory body, or other authority of the United States, a State, or a political subdivision thereof, may move to suppress the contents of any wire or oral communication intercepted pursuant to this chapter, or evidence derived therefrom, on the grounds that-- (i) the communication was unlawfully intercepted . . . . Id. § 2518(10)(a)(i).6 Here, the target and the husband claim to be aggrieved persons within the meaning of § 2510, and they seek to enforce § 2515's exclusionary rule to prohibit introduction to the grand jury of communications unlawfully intercepted by the witness. In response, the government stresses that § 2518 does not list grand jury proceedings among the proceedings in which an aggrieved person may move to suppress evidence. The government further contends that, even if the target and husband can properly move to enforce § 2515 in the context of a grand jury investigation, § 2515 contains a “clean hands” exception that permits disclosure to a grand jury of communications that were unlawfully 6 Aggrieved persons may also move to suppress on the grounds that the communication was intercepted pursuant to a court authorization that was insufficient on its face or intercepted in a manner not in conformity with an appropriate authorization. See 18 U.S.C. § 2518(10)(a)(ii)-(iii). 7 intercepted by a private party without government complicity.