18 U.S.C. § 2515
Section 2515 · Prohibition of use as evidence of intercepted wire or oral communications
This is the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 512 court decisions — leading case United States v. Calandra (1974)
Most recently applied in 338 Or. App. 399 - State v. Limbeck (March 2025)
Applied most in the Ninth Circuit Circuit (31 decisions)
Cases citing this section usually also cite 18 U.S.C. § 2518 · 18 U.S.C. § 2510 · 18 U.S.C. § 2511
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Whenever any wire or oral communication has been intercepted, no part of the contents of such communication and no evidence derived therefrom may be received in evidence in any trial, hearing, or other proceeding in or before any court, grand jury, department, officer, agency, regulatory body, legislative committee, or other authority of the United States, a State, or a political subdivision thereof if the disclosure of that information would be in violation of this chapter.