We must subject government officials to the same rules of conduct that we expect of the citizen . The very existence of the government is imperiled if it fails to observe the law scrupulously . As Brandeis puts it , " if the government becomes a lawbreaker , it breeds contempt for law ; it invites every man to become a law unto himself ; it invites anarchy . To declare that in the administration of the criminal law the end justifies the means — to declare that the government may commit crimes in order to secure the conviction of a private criminal — would bring terrible retribution . Against that pernicious doctrine this court should resolutely set its face . " Justice Brandeis ' opinion was quoted by Timothy McVeigh at his trial for the bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City . After remaining silent throughout his trial , he was asked before sentencing if he would like to make a statement . He responded " I wish instead to use the words of Justice Brandeis dissenting in '' Olmstead '' to speak for me . He wrote ' Our government is the potent , the omnipresent teacher . For good or ill , it teaches the whole people by its example . ' " Citing the extensive dissent filed by Brandeis , Holmes says that he need " add but a few words . " While he is not ready to say that the penumbra of the Fourth and Fifth Amendments covers the defendant , he does concur that even apart from the Constitution , the government should be prohibited to use evidence obtained ( and only obtainable ) by a criminal act . Holmes writes that in his opinion , it would be a lesser evil that some criminals should escape prosecution than that the government " should play an ignoble part . " Justice Butler begins his dissent by registering his regret for being unable to support the opinion and judgments of the Court . Because the writ of certiorari limited the counsel ’s arguments only to the constitutional question , he writes that it does not participate in the controversy of the admissibility of evidence because " the mode of obtaining it was unethical and a misdemeanor under state law . " The sole question that he considers is whether the government may direct its officers to engage in wiretapping without violating the search and seizure clause of the Fourth Amendment
bombing of the Federal Building
Oklahoma City bombing
Olmstead v. United States