Court Opinion

ID: 9759876
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 00:31:34.442399+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:05.736940
License: Public Domain

CASTILLE, Justice,

dissenting.

I join in Justice Newman’s dissenting opinion and write separately to reiterate my belief that Commonwealth v. Brion, 539 Pa. 256, 652 A.2d 287 (1994), was wrongly decided. As Former Chief Justice Nix stated in his dissenting opinion in Brion, by discussing his criminal involvement with another person, appellant abandoned any reasonable expectation of privacy in those communications. Id. at 263, 652 A.2d at 290. It is irrelevant whether those communications were made in a private home, an office or a public park. Therefore, I would hold that the Wiretap Act, 18 Pa.C.S. § 5701, et seq., does not violate Article I, Section 8 of the Pennsylvania Constitution by allowing communications in a person’s home to be intercepted electronically without prior judicial authorization.