United States v. Jones
United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
542 F.2d 661 (1976)
- Written by Miller Jozwiak, JD
Facts
William Jones (defendant) grew estranged from his wife. Jones still paid rent and the telephone bills for their shared home and sometimes returned home to babysit. While babysitting, Jones suspected that his wife was having a sexual relationship with another person. Jones used a wiretap to monitor his wife’s phone calls. The United States charged Jones with violating Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (Title III). Jones sought to dismiss the indictment, claiming that his actions fell within an implicit spousal exception to Title III, as the Fifth Circuit had held in Simpson v. Simpson. In Simpson, a wife brought a civil suit against her former husband for using a wiretap. Consulting the legislative history, the Simpson court concluded that Congress did not intend to cover purely interspousal wiretaps and that Title III thus did not apply. The district court agreed with that reasoning and dismissed the indictment. The government appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Celebrezze, J.)
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