Smith v. Maryland case brief

Smith v. Maryland case brief summary
442 U.S. 735 (1979)

CASE SYNOPSIS

Petitioner challenged an order of the Court of Appeals of Maryland that determined that the use of a pen register without a warrant to obtain the identity of numbers petitioner dialed from his home telephone did not violate petitioner's U.S. Constitutional Amendment IV rights.

CASE FACTS
After the victim of a robbery began receiving phone calls from the person who claimed to be the robber, the police installed a pen register, without a warrant, at the central telephone system in order to determine the identity of the numbers that petitioner, a suspect, was dialing. After the police discovered that petitioner had called the victim, they charged him with robbery. Petitioner alleged that use of the pen register constituted an illegal search within the meaning of U.S. Constitutional Amendment IV.

DISCUSSION

• On review of the state court's decision that it did not, the Court determined that petitioner's U.S. Constitutional Amendment IV rights were not violated. 
• The Court found that petitioner did not have a legitimate expectation of privacy regarding the numbers he dialed on his phone because those numbers were automatically turned over to a third party, the phone company. 
• The Court also ruled that even if petitioner did harbor some subjective expectation that the phone numbers he dialed would remain private, this expectation was not one that society was prepared to recognize as "reasonable." 
• Thus, the Court concluded that installation of the pen register was not a "search" and no warrant was required.

CONCLUSION

The Court affirmed the order from the state court, ruling that petitioner's Fourth Amendmentrights were not violated by warrantless use of a pen register.

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