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Emmanuel: Fourth Amendment does not reach Bahamas

By Tim Cone

In U.S. v. Emmanuel, No. 07-10378 (April 21, 2009), the Court affirmed drug trafficking convictions.The Court rejected the argument that a wiretap of the defendants under Bahamian law so "shocked the conscience" as to warrant suppression of its fruits, because no neutral magistrate need approve the wiretap. The Court noted that the "shock the judicial conscience" standard is meant to protect against conduct that violates "fundamental international norms of decency." Fundamental international norms of decency do not require judicial review in all jurisdictions of applications to intercept wire communications. Therefore, the Bahamian wiretap is not excludable.The Court also rejected the argument that the United States so involved itself with the Bahamian government in the wiretap that the Fourth Amendment applied...continue to full post

Full post as published by Defense Newsletter Blog on April 22, 2009 (boomark / email).