Owen J. Roberts

“ We come, then, to the Government's second proposition,-that disclosure of the intercepted communications was 'authorized by the sender' within the meaning of the clause. It is true that one or both of the parties to each of the admitted communications attested in the manner we have indicated to the intercepted conversations. This is said to amount to a consent to the divulgence of the subject matter and to satisfy the statute in that respect. We think the position is untenable. ”

“ The petitioners and the Government alike refer to the context of the critical clause, and the legislative history of the Communications Act, the former to demonstrate that all communications are protected from interception and divulgence, the latter to prove that the language of the Act must be more narrowly interpreted to cover only interstate and foreign communications. ”

“ It appeared at the trial that one of the defendants who pleaded guilty had been confronted with the phonographic records and had then decided to plead guilty and become a witness for the Government. Others who had been informed of the Government's possession of the records did likewise. In the preparation for trial one of the defendants, who was to testify for the prosecution, held a typed copy of the stenographic transcript of a telephone conversation in which he had participated while a phonographic record of the conversation was played to him. ”