Court Opinion

ID: 9700294
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 21:18:51.915735+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:06.701229
License: Public Domain

FLAHERTY, Justice,
concurring and dissenting.
I dissent from Part A of the opinion of the court which holds that 42 Pa.C.S. §§ 5984(a) and 5985(a) are unconstitutional under Article I, section 9 of the Pennsylvania Constitution, for the reasons set forth in the dissenting opinion of Mr. Chief Justice Nix, which I joined, and in my dissenting opinion, joined by the chief justice, in Commonwealth v. Ludwig, 527 Pa. 472, 481-92, 594 A.2d 281, 285-90 (1991). Furthermore, I believe it is improper to review the constitutionality of a statute which was not implicated in the case, viz. 42 Pa.C.S. § 5985(a), inasmuch as no live closed-circuit testimony was presented at trial. Although the logic seems to apply equally to both statutory provisions, it is unnecessary and improper to address the latter statute, and I believe any statement about it is dictum.
I concur with, and join, Part B of the majority opinion which reverses the trial court’s suppression of the tape-recordings made by Ms. Wolfe. I think the Loudens could have no reasonable expectation that their unreasonably loud conversations and obscene language, clearly audible in their neighbors’ home, would be protected from such interception.
NIX, C.J., joins this concurring and dissenting opinion.