Late last week the 5th Circuit withdrew a recent ruling that “severely curtailed the authority to wiretap phones that move outside of a court’s jurisdiction,” as previously discussed here.
In a landmark ruling the appellate court had held that either the phone or the listening device used to intercept the phone call must be in the jurisdiction of the district judge who authorizes the wiretap. But the court granted a rehearing, withdrew its previous opinion, and issued this opinion, which omits the jurisdictional restriction. The Wall Street Journal’s has additional coverage of this sudden reversal here.