Today in Supreme Court History: November 15, 1882

11/15/1882: Justice Felix Frankfurter's birthday.

Justice Felix Frankfurter

Comments

[Frank Drackman]

Something about this guy makes me want a Hot Dog

[JoeFromtheBronx]

His favorite birthday dinner was hot dogs and beans.

[The Margrave of Azilia]

Now do Chief Justice Burger.

[JoeFromtheBronx]

True bit: Frankfurter had a lot of influence, serving as a mentor and getting people jobs in government and other places.

They were sometimes called Frankfurter's "hot dogs."

[The Margrave of Azilia]

I think the term was "happy hot dogs," given that "Felix" means "happy" and "Frankfurter" means hot dog.

[F.D. Wolf]

On this day, November 15, 1957, William August Fisher aka Rudolf Ivanovich Abel, was sentenced to 30 years' imprisonment and a $3000 fine for espionage on behalf of the Soviet Union.

Abel had been arrested in his hotel room in New York by INS agents on an administrative warrant as an alien allegedly in the United States illegally. INS agents seized several items from his hotel room. The next day, without a warrant but with the hotel's permission, an FBI agent searched the room and seized additional items. (It was suggested the immigration warrant and arrest were a pretense for an espionage investigation. I believe this was almost certainly the case.)

The Court of Appeals affirmed the decision, which was appealed to the Supreme Court. The questions for the Court were whether the administrative immigration warrant was constitutionally sufficient to support the search and seizure of items unrelated to immigration violations and whether those items were constitutionally admitted into evidence at Abel's espionage trial.

A 5-4 Court, along ideological lines, upheld the conviction. Abel v. United States, 362 U.S. 217 (1960). Our birthday boy, Justice Frankfurter, wrote the majority opinion, joined by Clark, Harlan, Whittaker, and Stewart. Justice Brennan dissented, joined by Warren, Black, and Douglas. Douglas also wrote a separate dissent, joined by Black.

Abel would only serve four years of his thirty-year sentence, as he was exchanged with the Soviet Union for American U-2 pilot Capt. Francis Gary Powers, who had been shot down over the Soviet Union during a spy mission in 1960.

Abel would die on this day, November 15, 1971, in Moscow, honored as a hero of the Soviet Union.

[Lee Moore]

The next day, without a warrant but with the hotel's permission, an FBI agent searched the room and seized additional items.

I thought permission from the owner was sufficient for 4A purposes ?

Anyway I am reminded of an entertaining story from a newspaper. Can't remember where - somewhere in Europe. Maybe Italy.

A gentleman had booked himself into a cheap hotel and had brought his bicycle into his room. There, as one does, he had decided to have a sexual tryst .... with his bicycle. The story did not disclose his technique for this, but there he was in his hotel room, having sex with his bicycle, when ... contrary to his expectations when he had hung up the DND sign, and to the embarrassment of all, the maid came into the room to clean it.

The gentleman was charged with various offenses, from indecent exposure to gross indecency to whatever, and was convicted, the court concluding that he had no reasonable expectation of privacy in his hotel room, even with the DND sign up.

Which struck me as a little harsh.

[Syd Henderson]

I can't think of Abel without remembering Mark Rylance's excellent performance as him in "Bridge of Spies," for which he won a well-deserved Academy Award. I do wonder if Abel was a hero of the Soviet Union, whether Powers got a Medal of Honor. I hope not; really, he's mostly memorable for being shot down.

[Syd Henderson]

No, he didn't, though he did get some other medals. I think Donovan (Abel's counsel) was pretty much right in this case, though Abel was obviously a spy (although I have to wonder how much, if any, damage he did). Extradition may have been better, and that is kind of what actually happened.