UNITED STATES v. Di RE (332 U.S. 581)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided January 5, 1948 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 332 U.S. 581 · 68 S. Ct. 222
- Docket
- No. 61
- Argued
- October 17, 1947
- Decided
- January 5, 1948
- Term
- October Term 1947
- Vote
- 7–2
- Majority author
- Justice Jackson (R.H.)
- Issue area
- Criminal Procedure
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
How the Justices voted
- Majority
- Justice Burton, Justice R. H. Jackson (wrote), Justice Douglas, Justice Frankfurter, Justice Reed, Justice Rutledge, Justice Murphy
- Dissenting
- Chief Justice Vinson, Justice Black
Opinion excerpt
Me. Justice Jackson delivered the opinion of the Court. Michael Di Re was convicted on a charge of knowingly possessing counterfeit gasoline ration coupons in violation of § 301 of the Second War Powers Act, 1942. The decisive evidence was that obtained by search of his person, after he was arrested without a warrant of any kind. The Circuit Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, considered that any question as to the timeliness of his objection to this evidence was eliminated by its disposition on its merits by the District Court, and, one judge dissenting, it held both his search and arrest to have been illegal. The Government was granted certiorari, raising no question other than the correctness of the holding by the Court of Appeals that the evidence was the fruit of an illegal arrest and search. An investigator for the Office of Price Administration was informed by one Reed that he was to buy counterfeit gasoline ration coupons from a certain Buttitta at a named place in the City of Buffalo, New York. The investigator and a detective from the Buffalo Police Department trailed Buttitta’s car and finally came upon it parked at the appointed place. They went to the car and found the informer Reed, the only occupant of the rear seat, holding in his hand two gasoline ration coupons which later proved to be counterfeit. Reed, on being asked, said he obtained them from Buttitta, who…
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