en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Felt
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The use of "black bag jobs" by the FBI was declared unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court in the Plamondon case, 407 U.S. 297 (1972).
This misstates what the Plamondon/Keith case decided. The Supreme Court's 1972 ruling addressed warrantless domestic-security wiretaps, not black-bag break-ins, and later case law recognized that covert entries can be constitutional when authorized by a warrant.
Full reasoning
The cited Supreme Court case, United States v. U.S. District Court (the "Keith" or Plamondon case), was about electronic surveillance. The Court described the question as the President's power to authorize electronic surveillance in internal security matters without prior judicial approval, and held that the Fourth Amendment requires prior judicial approval for that kind of domestic security surveillance.
That is different from saying the Court declared all FBI "black bag jobs"—surreptitious physical break-ins—unconstitutional in that case. In fact, later Supreme Court precedent stated that covert entries can be constitutional in some circumstances if made pursuant to a warrant. So the article's statement wrongly attributes a broad ruling on physical break-ins to a case that actually concerned warrantless wiretaps/electronic surveillance.
2 sources
- UNITED STATES v. UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT (407 U.S. 297) | Legal Information Institute
The Court said the issue was the President's power to authorize 'electronic surveillance in internal security matters without prior judicial approval' and held that the Fourth Amendment requires prior judicial approval for 'the type of domestic security surveillance involved in this case.'
- Dispelling the Myths | U.S. Department of Justice
The Justice Department summarizes later Supreme Court law by noting that 'covert entries are constitutional in some circumstances, at least if they are made pursuant to a warrant,' citing Dalia v. U.S., 441 U.S. 238 (1979).