United States v. Knotts

Decided March 2, 1983. William Hubbs Rehnquist delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 81-1802 · 460 U.S. 276 (1983) · Cited 749 times

Holding

Monitoring the beeper signals did not invade any legitimate expectation of privacy on respondent's part, and thus there was neither a "search" nor a "seizure" within the contemplation of the Fourth Amendment.

The Court’s statement of the holding, from the opinion’s syllabus. The syllabus is prepared by the Reporter of Decisions and is not part of the opinion of the Court — read the official opinion for authority.

How the Justices voted

Decided 9–0.

“Concurring” means agreeing with the outcome; any split shown is the Court’s judgment, not each Justice’s reasoning. Source: the Supreme Court Database (Spaeth et al.), Washington University.

Precedents cited

Supreme Court decisions this opinion relies on, ordered by how often it cites each. Cases in our collection link through; others are named.

• Katz v. United States · 389 U.S. 347 (1967)
• Smith v. Maryland · 442 U.S. 735 (1979)
• Olmstead v. United States · 277 U.S. 438 (1928)
• Hester v. United States · 265 U.S. 57 (1924)
• Zurcher v. Stanford Daily · 436 U.S. 547 (1978)
• Rakas v. Illinois · 439 U.S. 128 (1978)
• United States v. Lee · 274 U.S. 559 (1927)
• Payton v. New York · 445 U.S. 573 (1980)
• Johnson v. United States · 333 U.S. 10 (1948)
• South Dakota v. Opperman · 428 U.S. 364 (1976)
• Rawlings v. Kentucky · 448 U.S. 98 (1980)
• Silverman v. United States · 365 U.S. 505 (1961)
• Gouled v. United States · 255 U.S. 298 (1921)
• Cardwell v. Lewis · 417 U.S. 583 (1974)
• Lewis v. United States · 385 U.S. 206 (1966)

Cited by

Later Supreme Court opinions in our collection that cite this case.

• United States v. Karo · 468 U.S. 705 (1984)
• Carpenter v. United States · 585 U.S. 296 (2018)
• Florida v. Jardines · 569 U.S. 1 (2013)
• California v. Ciraolo · 476 U.S. 207 (1986)
• United States v. Place · 462 U.S. 696 (1983)
• United States v. Jacobsen · 466 U.S. 109 (1984)
• Illinois v. Andreas · 463 U.S. 765 (1983)
• Florida v. Riley · 488 U.S. 445 (1989)
• New Jersey v. T. L. O. · 469 U.S. 325 (1985)
• Oliver v. United States · 466 U.S. 170 (1984)
• Segura v. United States · 468 U.S. 796 (1984)
• Michigan v. Chesternut · 486 U.S. 567 (1988)
• California v. Acevedo · 500 U.S. 565 (1991)
• Maryland v. MacOn · 472 U.S. 463 (1985)

Official text

Read the official opinion (U.S. Reports, govinfo.gov)

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Source: Supreme Court of the United States, slip opinions (1983). Citation count from the Free Law Project’s CourtListener bulk data. Data last verified 2026-07-03. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).