William O. Douglas

“ Their home are bugged and their telephones are wiretapped. They are befriended by secret government informers. [10] Their patriotism and loyalty are questioned. [11] [p331] Senator Sam Ervin, who has chaired hearings on military surveillance of civilian dissidents, warns that "it is not an exaggeration to talk in terms of hundreds of thousands of . . . dossiers." [12] Senator Kennedy, as mentioned supra, found "the frightening possibility that the conversations of untold thousands are being monitored on secret devices." More than our privacy is implicated. ”

“ Rather, the recurring desire of reigning officials to employ dragnet techniques to intimidate their critics lies at the core of that prohibition. For it was such excesses as the use of general warrants and the writs of assistance that led to the ratification of the Fourth Amendment. ”

“ More recently, attention has shifted to militant anti-war and civil rights groups. In part because of support for such groups among university students throughout the country, informers seem to have become ubiquitous on campus. Some insight into the scope of the current use of informers was provided by the Media Papers, FBI documents stolen in early 1971 from a Bureau office in Media, Pennsylvania. ”

“ Informers have been used for national security reasons throughout the twentieth century. They were deployed to combat what was perceived to be an internal threat from radicals during the early 1920's. When fears began to focus on Communism, groups thought to have some connection with the Communist Party were heavily infiltrated. ”

“ Such devices lay down a dragnet which indiscriminately sweeps in all conversations within its scope, without regard to the nature of the conversations, or the participants. A warrant authorizing such devices is no different from the general warrants the Fourth Amendment was intended to prohibit. ”

“ In Philadelphia's black community, for instance, a whole range of buildings "including offices of the Congress of Racial Equality, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference [and] the Black Coalition" [ibid.] was singled out for surveillance by building employees and other similar informers working for the FBI. Note, Developments In The Law — The National Security Interest and Civil Liberties, 85 Harv.L.Rev. ”