149 Wis. 2d 89 - State v. Smith’s Empirical Analysis
1989
Citation profile
5 federal appellate · 35 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 46 later decisions — most recently June 2008 · most notably Fearnow v. Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co. (1995), United States v. Smith (1992)
5 federal appellate · 35 state decisions — followed in 13 states
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on Katz v. United States · Smith v. Allwright · United States v. Hall · State v. Delaurier · 632 F. Supp. 584 - Edwards v. Bardwell
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 46 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[m]icrowave transmissions are focused beams comparable to a stone aimed at a specific target, which will not deviate from its course. A [cordless] telephone broadcast, on the other hand, is of much lower frequency and is thus not capable of being transmitted in a particular direction. It is, by definition, “broadcast.” It is not a stone hurled at a target, but is rather analogous to a stone dropped into a pool of water, which results in the transmission of equal waves of energy in all directions, which will lap against any obstacle in the path of the emanating and ever enlarging concentric circles until the wave energy transmitted is totally diminished. ... [W]hen a cordless telephone transmitter is used[, w]eak signals are transmitted from the base unit and handset in all directions and may be intercepted within about one thousand feet by anyone who is listening with a scanner, compatible cordless telephone, or other radio receiver.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“[I]f a telephone conversation which the police intercepted without a warrant is either a "wire communication" or an "oral communication," its use in court proceedings is prohibited. Where there is a "wire communication," e.g., ordinary communication by landline telephone, there is a statutory presumption of confidentiality. Even were a person to know that the conversation was in fact being intercepted by police authorities, there could be complete confidence, as a matter of law, that, in the absence of prior judicial approval, the contents of the conversation or evidence derived therefrom could not be used in court proceedings. The expectation of privacy, whether reasonable or unreasonable, is irrelevant, because the privacy of a "wire communication" is protected as a matter of law.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“Weak signals are transmitted from the base unit and handset in all directions and may be intercepted within about one thousand feet by anyone who is listening with a scanner, compatible cordless telephone, or other radio receiver.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.