Cite as: 532 U. S. 514 (2001)
Rehnquist, C. J., dissenting
tronic surveillance techniques. As a result of these developments, privacy of communication is seriously jeopardized by these techniques of surveillance. . . . No longer is it possible, in short, for each man to retreat into his home and be left alone. Every spoken word relating to each man's personal, marital, religious, political, or commercial concerns can be intercepted by an unseen auditor and turned against the speaker to the auditor's advantage." S. Rep. No. 1097, 90th Cong., 2d Sess., 67 (1968) (hereinafter S. Rep. No. 1097).
This concern for privacy was inseparably bound up with the desire that personal conversations be frank and un-inhibited, not cramped by fears of clandestine surveillance and purposeful disclosure:
"In a democratic society privacy of communication is essential if citizens are to think and act creatively and constructively. Fear or suspicion that one's speech is being monitored by a stranger, even without the reality of such activity, can have a seriously inhibiting effect upon the willingness to voice critical and constructive ideas." President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice, The Challenge of Crime in a Free Society 202 (1967).
To effectuate these important privacy and speech interests, Congress and the vast majority of States have proscribed the intentional interception and knowing disclosure of the contents of electronic communications.2 See, e. g., 18 U. S. C. § 2511(1)(c) (placing restrictions upon "any person who . . . intentionally discloses, or endeavors to disclose, to any other person the contents of any wire, oral, or electronic commu-2 "Electronic communication" is defined as "any transfer of signs, signals, writing, images, sounds, data, or intelligence of any nature transmitted in whole or in part by a wire, radio, electromagnetic, photoelectronic or photooptical system." 18 U. S. C. § 2510(12) (1994 ed., Supp. V).
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