Louis D. Brandeis: Dissent in Olmstead v. United States

( 1928 ) Commentary by David W. Levy, University of Oklahoma

“Our Government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the Government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. To declare that, in the administration of the criminal law, the end justifies the means—to declare that the Government may commit crimes in order to secure the conviction of a private criminal—would bring terrible retribution.” - Olmstead v. United States

Louis D. Brandeis (Library of Congress)

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