Record
Court opinion
1969-04-21
CourtListener (Free Law Project), text of the order and dissent
Balistrieri v. United States, 394 U.S. 985 (1969) (certiorari denied; Fortas, J., dissenting)
The Supreme Court's order of April 21, 1969 denying review of Frank Peter Balistrieri's tax conviction, with a dissent by Justice Fortas, joined by Justice Douglas, listing the eavesdropping and searches the petitioner claimed and the government did not deny.
- Date
- 1969-04-21
- Kind
- court-opinion
- Retrieved
- 2026-10-12
- Docket
- No. 1070
- Rights
- Opinion of a United States court. Works of the federal judiciary are in the public domain in the United States (17 U.S.C. § 105). The text was read on CourtListener.
Supreme Court of the United States, April 21, 1969. The order reads: “C. A. 7th Cir. Certiorari denied.” Justice Marshall took no part.
Justice Fortas, with whom Justice Douglas joined, dissented. He wrote that the petitioner “was adjudged guilty of income tax evasion” and that the petitioner claimed, and “the Government does not deny,” a record of government intrusion. He listed: “An electronic ‘bug,’ installed by trespass, was maintained in his office for over a year”; “A ‘bug’ was unlawfully installed and maintained for almost six months in the office of petitioner’s counsel”; and “A ‘bug’ was installed by trespass and maintained in the office-apartment of petitioner’s secretary for some eight months.” He added that agents watched that apartment through a peephole and that the Post Office kept a mail cover at IRS request. He would have reviewed whether the scrap-metal evidence used at trial was truly independent of the illegally seized documents.
A dissent from a denial of certiorari states one Justice’s view of the record; it is not a holding. Two months later the Court granted rehearing and vacated the judgment: see 395 U.S. 710.