United States v. Foundas

That neither the First Amendment nor the constitutional right to privacy is violated when a conversation is recorded by one of the participants is now settled. United States v. Rangel, 5 Cir. 1974, 488 F.2d 871, Cert. denied, 416 U.S. 984, 94 S. Ct. 2386, 40 L. Ed. 2d 760; Koran v. United States, 5 Cir. 1969, 408 F.2d 1321, Cert. denied, 1971, 402 U.S. 948, 91 S. Ct. 1603, 29 L. Ed. 2d 118.1 The contention here advanced that privacy is invaded if an undercover agent, instead of placing recording or transmitting devices on his person, conceals a transmitter in his motel room so that conversations with him occurring there are transmitted to another location for recording is too faint to broadcast beyond this opinion. See United States v. White, 1971, 401 U.S. 745, 91 S. Ct. 1122, 28 L. Ed. 2d 453.2 Because the trial was to the court on a stipulation of what the witnesses would have testified, together with the introduction of a transcript of the transmitted conversation, only legal issues remain. We determine them in this clarified atmosphere.