Lee v. Florida

Background

Three people convicted under Florida lottery laws were tried using tape recordings of telephone calls the Orlando police had secretly made over more than a week. One defendant had ordered a private telephone but was given a four‑party line; the police arranged a phone and recorder in a neighbor’s house so they could hear and record calls, including calls from the other two defendants and from public phones, without warning. The Florida courts admitted those recordings at trial and the defendants were convicted.

Reasoning

The Court examined the federal Communications Act, §605, which forbids intercepting and divulging communications without the sender’s authorization. The majority found the police did far more than overhear a regular party line: they connected equipment to enable continuous, secret recording and eliminated any warning click. Relying on earlier decisions such as Nardone and Benanti, and on later rulings including Mapp and Elkins, the Court concluded that §605 applies and state courts must exclude unlawfully obtained recordings; the Florida convictions were reversed.

Real world impact

The decision prevents state prosecutors and courts from using evidence consisting of secretly intercepted telephone calls in criminal trials when the interception violated §605. The Court stressed that the rule applies in every State and that courts may not become accomplices to willful violations of federal law. The ruling did not decide separate Fourth or Fourteenth Amendment claims in this case.

Dissents or concurrances

Three Justices dissented, arguing the Court wrongly overruled an earlier decision and that Congress, rather than the Court, should change §605 if broader exclusion is desired; they would have affirmed the convictions.