United States v. Caceres

• Decision Date: 02 April 1979
• Docket Number: No. 76-1309,76-1309
• Citation: 440 U.S. 741,99 S.Ct. 1465,59 L.Ed.2d 733
• Parties: UNITED STATES, Petitioner, v. Alfredo L. CACERES
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

59 L.Ed.2d 733

99 S.Ct. 1465

440 U.S. 741

UNITED STATES, Petitioner,

v Alfredo L. CACERES.

No. 76-1309.

Argued Jan. 8, 9, 1979.

Decided April 2, 1979.

Syllabus

Regulations in the Internal Revenue Service Manual prohibit "consensual electronic surveillance" between taxpayers and IRS agents unless certain specified prior authorization is obtained. With respect to the monitoring of face-to-face (nontelephone) conversations, the Director of the Internal Security Division or the Assistant Commissioner (Inspection) of the IRS may authorize the recording of such conversations in emergency situations, but if there is at least 48 hours in which to obtain approval, a signed request must also be submitted to the Attorney General or a designated Assistant Attorney General. In connection with the audit of the income tax returns of respondent and his wife, an IRS agent met with respondent on, among other dates, January 31 and February 6, 1975. Emergency approval for the use of electronic equipment at both meetings was obtained, pending a request to the Justice Department for authority to monitor conversations with respondent for a 30-day period, but such authority was never obtained for the January 31 and February 6 meetings. At these meetings, respondent, unaware of the surveillance, paid or offered money to the agent for a favorable resolution of the audit. The agent at both meetings wore a concealed radio transmitter which allowed other agents to monitor and record the conversations. Subsequently, respondent was prosecuted for bribing the IRS agent. At his trial he moved to suppress tape recordings of the conversations on the ground that the authorizations required by the IRS regulations had not been secured. The District Court granted the motion, and the Court of Appeals affirmed. Both courts held that the meetings had not been monitored in accordance with the IRS regulations, concluding that neither meeting fell within the emergency provision of the regulations because the exigencies were the product of "government-created scheduling problems." Held: The tape recordings, and the testimony of the agents who monitored the meetings in question, were not required to be excluded from evidence because of the conceded violation of the IRS regulations. Pp. 749-757.

(a) While a court has a duty to enforce an agency regulation when compliance with the regulation is mandated by the Constitution or federal law, here the agency was not required either by the Constitution, Lopez v. United States, 373 U.S. 427, 83 S.Ct. 1381, 10 L.Ed.2d 462; United States v. White, 401 U.S 745, 91 S.Ct. 1122, 28 L.Ed.2d 453, or by statute, Bridges v. Wixon, 326 U.S. 135, 65 S.Ct. 1443, 89 L.Ed. 2103, distinguished, to adopt any particular procedures or rules before engaging in consensual monitoring and recording. Pp. 749-751.

(b) None of respondent's constitutional rights was violated either by the actual recording or by the agency's violation of its own regulations. That respondent's conversations were monitored without Justice Department approval, whereas conversations of others similarly situated would, assuming the IRS generally follows its own regulations, be recorded only with such approval, does not amount to a denial of equal protection. Nor does the IRS officials' construction of the situation as an emergency, even if erroneous, raise any constitutional questions. And this is not a case in which the Due Process Clause is implicated, since respondent cannot reasonably contend that he relied on the regulations or that their breach had any effect on his conduct. Finally, the Administrative Procedure Act provides no grounds for judicial enforcement of the violated regulations, since the remedy sought is not invalidation of the agency action but rather judicial enforcement of the regulations by means of the exclusionary rule. Pp. 751-755.

(c) This Court declines to adopt any rigid exclusionary rule, such as is urged by respondent, whereby all evidence obtained in violation of regulations concerning electronic eavesdropping would be excluded. Nor can this Court accept respondent's further argument that even without a rigid rule of exclusion, his is a case in which evidence secured in violation of agency regulations should be excluded under a more limited, individualized approach, since, to the contrary, this case exemplifies those situations in which evidence would not be excluded under a case-by-case approach, it appearing that the agency action, though later found to violate the regulations, nonetheless reflected a reasonable, good-faith attempt to comply in a situation in which monitoring was appropriate and would have received Justice Department approval if the request had been received more promptly. Pp. 755-757.

545 F.2d 1182, reversed.

James J. Brosnahan, San Francisco, Cal., for respondent.

Kenneth S. Geller, Dept. of Justice, Washington, D.C., for petitioner.

Mr. Justice STEVENS delivered the opinion of the Court.

The question we granted certiorari to decide is whether evidence obtained in violation of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) regulations may be admitted at the criminal trial of a taxpayer accused of bribing an IRS agent. 436 U.S. 943, 98 S.Ct. 2843, 56 L.Ed.2d 784 (1978).

Unbeknown to respondent, three of his face-to-face conversations with IRS Agent Yee were monitored by means of a radio transmitter concealed on Yee's person. Respondent moved to suppress tape recordings of the three conversations on the ground that the authorizations required by IRS regulations had not been secured. The District Court granted the motion. The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed as to the third tape; it concluded that adequate authorization had been obtained.¹ As to the first two tapes, however, the Court of Appeals agreed with the District Court both that the IRS regulations had not been followed and that exclusion of the recordings was therefore required. It is the latter conclusion that is at issue here.

The Government argues that exclusion of probative evidence in a criminal trial is an inappropriate sanction for violation of an executive department's regulations. In this case, moreover, it argues that suppression is especially inappropriate because the violation of the regulation was neither deliberate nor prejudicial, and did not affect any constitu- tional or statutory rights. We agree that suppression should not have been ordered in this case, and therefore reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeals.

I

Neither the Constitution nor any Act of Congress requires that official approval be secured before conversations are overheard or recorded by Government agents with the consent of one of the conversants.² Such "consensual electronic surveillance" between taxpayers and IRS agents is, however, prohibited by IRS regulations unless appropriate prior authorization is obtained.³

The IRS Manual sets forth in detail the procedures to be followed in obtaining such approvals.⁴ For all types of re- quests the regulations require an explanation of the reasons for the proposal, the type of equipment to be used, the names of the persons involved, and the duration of the proposed monitoring.

Approval by as many as three different levels of authority may be required, depending on the kind of surveillance that is contemplated and the circumstances of the request. Telephone conversations may be monitored with the approval of an Assistant Regional Inspector of the Internal Security Division. Such advance approval may be requested and given verbally, although the authorization must subsequently be confirmed in writing. The monitoring of nontelephone conversations requires approval at the national as well as the regional level. In emergency situations, the Director, or Acting Director, Internal Security Division, or the Assistant Commissioner (Inspection) may authorize the recording. If there is at least 48 hours in which to obtain approval, a signed request must also be submitted to the Attorney General of the United States, or a designated Assistant Attorney General, by the Director or Acting Director of the Internal Security Division.

II

On March 14, 1974, Agent Yee met with respondent and his wife in connection with an audit of their 1971 income tax returns. After Mrs. Caceres left the meeting, respondent offered Yee a "personal settlement" of $500 in exchange for a favorable resolution of the audit. When he returned to the IRS office, Yee reported the offer to his superiors and prepared an affidavit describing it.⁵

The record reflects no further discussion of the offer until January 1975. It does indicate, however, that one telephone conversation between Yee and respondent, on March 21, 1974, was recorded with authorization,⁶ and that authority was also obtained to monitor face-to-face conversations with respondent from time to time during the period between March and September 1974.⁷ Yee continued to work on the audit of respondent's records throughout this period, but his meetings, until January 1975, were with Mrs. Caceres and the Caceres' accountant.⁸

On January 27, 1975, Yee had a meeting with respondent that was not recorded. According to Yee's affidavit,⁹ the meeting proceeded in two stages. First, he discussed his calculations with respondent, Mrs. Caceres, and their accountant. When respondent and his wife asked for an additional week to check their records, Yee told them it would be necessary to sign an extension because the statute of limitations would otherwise expire soon. Respondent stated that he would have to consult his attorney before signing any extension, and would call Yee with his decision later that day.

Yee then left the office to return to his car. He was followed by respondent, who revived the subject of a "personal settlement." This time, respondent indicated that he had $500 that he would give Yee immediately, with an additional $500 to be paid when the matter was finally settled. Yee...