Bartnicki v. Vopper

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Bartnicki v. Vopper
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued December 5, 2000 Decided May 21, 2001
Full case name	Bartnicki et al. v. Vopper, aka Williams, et al.
Citations	532 U.S. 514 (more) 121 S. Ct. 1753; 149 L. Ed. 2d 787; 2001 U.S. LEXIS 3815
Case history
Prior	200 F.3d 109 (3d Cir. 1999); cert. granted, 530 U.S. 1260 (2000).
Holding
A broadcaster cannot be held civilly liable for publishing documents or tapes illegally procured by a third-party.
Court membership
Chief Justice William Rehnquist Associate Justices John P. Stevens · Sandra Day O'Connor Antonin Scalia · Anthony Kennedy David Souter · Clarence Thomas Ruth Bader Ginsburg · Stephen Breyer
Case opinions
Majority	Stevens, joined by O'Connor, Kennedy, Souter, Ginsburg, Breyer
Concurrence	Breyer, joined by O'Connor
Dissent	Rehnquist, joined by Scalia, Thomas

Bartnicki v. Vopper, 532 U.S. 514 (2001), is a United States Supreme Court case relieving a media defendant of liability for broadcasting a taped conversation of a labor official talking to other union members about a teachers' strike.^[1]

At trial, the parties stipulated that the taped conversation had been recorded in violation of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. Nevertheless, the Court held the broadcast was legal.