Opinion ID: 389242
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Title III Claim

Text: 12 Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 prohibits, in part, electronic telephone surveillance without judicial warrant. 18 U.S.C. § 2511 (1970). Section 2511(3), however, provides that Title III is not intended to limit the constitutional power of the President to take such measures as he deems necessary to protect the United States against the overthrow of the Government by force or other unlawful means, or against any other clear and present danger to the structure or existence of the Government. 13 In its September 27, 1977 memorandum and order, the district court properly concluded that Mitchell authorized the Black Panther Party surveillance for appropriate national security reasons and that he was therefore exempted from Title III's provisions by its national security exemption. As the district court held, Mitchell's liability under Title III depends upon the terms of the statute whether the surveillance was intended to protect the United States against the overthrow of the Government by force. See Halperin v. Kissinger, 606 F.2d 1192 (D.C.Cir.1979), cert. granted, 445 U.S. 924, 100 S.Ct. 1308, 63 L.Ed.2d 757 (1980). In Zweibon v. Mitchell, 516 F.2d 594, 666 (D.C.Cir.1975), cert. denied, 425 U.S. 944, 96 S.Ct. 1684, 48 L.Ed.2d 187 (1976) (hereinafter Zweibon I ), this court narrowly interpreted the national security exemption to exclude only those national security wiretaps that can constitutionally be performed without a warrant. Applied retroactively to this case, Zweibon I would prohibit Mitchell from relying on the exemption because Keith held that the wiretaps at issue were unconstitutional. However, the Zweibon I interpretation of the exemption applies only prospectively. Zweibon v. Mitchell, 606 F.2d 1172, 1182 (D.C.Cir.1979), pet. and cross-pet. for cert. filed, 48 U.S.L.W. 3404 (Dec. 12, 1979) (hereinafter Zweibon III ). Accordingly, the Supreme Court's holding in Keith does not restrict Mitchell's defense under the national security exemption as long as the surveillance was undertaken for proper national security reasons. See Chagnon, supra, at 1260. 14 On the record before us, we agree with the district court that there is no evidence that the Black Panther Party surveillance was undertaken for improper reasons. Mitchell's authorizations for the surveillances recited contacts maintained by Party members with foreign governments and organizations; and, as this court observed in Halperin, supra, 606 F.2d at 1204, contacts with foreign representatives provide the clearest justification for a national security exception to Title III. The plaintiffs do not create a genuine issue of fact by merely suggesting that the memoranda might be read to reach a different conclusion. Although the plaintiffs have had their discovery on the Black Panther Party surveillance and their chance to take Mitchell's deposition, they can point to no evidentiary basis for impugning Mitchell's motives. Therefore, given the paucity of evidence before it, the district court properly dismissed the plaintiffs' Title III claim under the national security exception.