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Smith v. Maryland | 442 U.S. 735 (1979)

What if you discovered that the government was keeping a record of the names and phone numbers of the people with whom you spoke on your telephone? Would you feel like your privacy had been invaded? Does such monitoring require a search warrant under the Fourth Amendment? The United States Supreme Court addressed this issue in Smith versus Maryland.

A stranger robbed Patricia McDonough, taking her wallet that contained her identification. She saw the robber flee in a green and tan 1975 Monte Carlo automobile. Thereafter, she received threatening and obscene phone calls from a man claiming to be the robber. A police officer later observed a man driving a green and tan 1975 Monte Carlo in McDonough’s neighborhood and recorded its license plate. The license plate was registered to Michael Smith, who lived with his father, Robert Smith. Without a search warrant, the officers directed the telephone company to place a pen register on the Smiths’ home telephone.

A pen register is a device that records the incoming and outgoing telephone numbers associated with a specific phone number but doesn’t record telephone conversations. The device is used at the telephone company’s office and isn’t physically placed on the property where the monitored telephone is located.

The pen register recorded a call from the Smiths’ home phone to McDonough’s phone. Based on that evidence and other information, officers obtained a search warrant for the Smiths’ residence. The search revealed a phone book with McDonough’s name and number marked. Officers arrested Michael Smith and put him in a line-up shown to McDonough, who identified him as the robber. The State of Maryland charged Smith with robbery.

Smith moved to suppress the phone book and McDonough’s pretrial identification as tainted fruit of the warrantless pen register. The trial court denied the motion and convicted Smith. On appeal, the Maryland Court of Appeals affirmed his conviction.

Smith successfully petitioned the United States Supreme Court to review his case.

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