United States v. United States District Court

United States v. U.S. District Court
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued February 24, 1972 Decided June 19, 1972
Full case name	United States v. United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, et al. (Plamondon, et al., real parties in interest)
Citations	407 U.S. 297 (more) 92 S. Ct. 2125; 32 L. Ed. 2d 752; 1972 U.S. LEXIS 38
Holding
Government officials are obligated to obtain a warrant before beginning electronic surveillance even when domestic security issues are involved. The "inherent vagueness of the domestic security concept" and the potential for abusing it to quell political dissent make the Fourth Amendment protections especially important when the government engaged in spying on its own citizens.
Court membership
Chief Justice Warren E. Burger Associate Justices William O. Douglas · William J. Brennan Jr. Potter Stewart · Byron White Thurgood Marshall · Harry Blackmun Lewis F. Powell Jr. · William Rehnquist
Case opinions
Majority	Powell, joined by Douglas, Brennan, Stewart, Marshall, Blackmun
Concurrence	Burger (concurred in the result without opinion)
Concurrence	Douglas
Concurrence	White
Rehnquist took no part in the consideration or decision of the case.
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. IV

United States v. U.S. District Court, 407 U.S. 297 (1972), also known as the Keith Case, was a landmark United States Supreme Court decision that upheld, in a unanimous 8-0 ruling, the requirements of the Fourth Amendment in cases of domestic surveillance targeting a domestic threat.

The United States charged John Sinclair, Lawrence 'Pun' Plamondon, and John Forrest with conspiracy to destroy government property. One of the defendants, Lawrence 'Pun' Plamondon, was also charged with the dynamite bombing of an office of the Central Intelligence Agency in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The defendants were leaders of the radical White Panther Party. In response to a pretrial motion by the defense for disclosure of all electronic surveillance information, Nixon's attorney general, John Mitchell, claimed he authorized the wiretaps pursuant to Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 and was not required to disclose the sources. Though warrantless, the act allows for an exception to prevent the overthrow of the government and when "any other clear and present danger to the structure or existence of the Government" exists. The Government contended that since the defendants were members of a domestic organization attempting to subvert and destroy it, this case fell under the exception clause.

After reading the briefs and hearing oral arguments by constitutional law attorney Hugh M. "Buck" Davis,^[1] Judge Damon Keith^[2] of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan disagreed and ordered the Government to disclose all of the illegally intercepted conversations to the defendants.^[3] The Government appealed, filing a petition for a writ of mandamus with the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit to set aside the order. The Sixth Circuit also rejected the Government's arguments and upheld the lower court decision.^[4]