Kolod v. United States

After the petition for a writ of certiorari in this case was filed, petitioners' counsel, as alleged in their petition for rehearing, learned of a government agency's electronic monitoring of a petitioner's conversations at his place of business. The Solicitor General sought to justify nondisclosure by the Government on the basis of the Justice Department's determination that the eavesdropped information was not arguably relevant to this prosecution.

Held: This Court cannot accept the Department's ex parte determination of relevancy in lieu of such a determination in an adversary District Court proceeding, to be confined to the content of any electronically eavesdropped conversations at petitioner's place of business and the pertinence thereof to petitioners' subsequent convictions.

Rehearing and certiorari granted; 371 F. 2d 983, vacated and remanded.

Edward Bennett Williams, Harold Ungar and W.H. Erickson for petitioners.

Solicitor General Griswold, former Solicitor General Marshall, Assistant Attorney General Vinson, Beatrice Rosenberg and Sidney M. Glazer for the United States.

PER CURIAM.