Atkinson 13 L. Rush Atkinson, U.S. Department of Justice, National Security Division. Vanderbilt Law Review October, 2013 66 Vand. L. Rev. 1343 ARTICLE: The Fourth Amendment's National Security Exception: Its History and Limits lexis
Wiretapping, also known as telephone surveillance, involves the interception of a message during its transmission by wire or radio wave from one party to another. n168 Like bugging and physical searches, wiretapping became frequently employed in national security investigations; as noted above, Franklin Roosevelt authorized wiretapping in security matters as early as 1940. n169 But, while wiretapping was prolific in security investigations, federal officials did not rely on the Fourth Amendment's national security exception because, unlike bugging, wiretapping rarely involves physical trespass. Consequently, in Olmstead v. United States, the Supreme Court held such surveillance to be outside the Fourth Amendment's ambit and therefore constitutionally permissible. n170
