"Decency, security and liberty alike demand
that government officials shall be subjected
to the rules of conduct that are commands to the citizen.
In a government of laws,
existence of the government will be imperiled
if it fails to observe the law scrupulously.
Our government is the potent,
omnipresent teacher.
For good or for ill,
it teaches the whole people
by its example.
Crime is contagious.
If the government becomes a lawbreaker,
it breeds contempt for the law;
it invites every man to come a law unto himself.
It invites anarchy."
(United States v. Olmstead, 277 U.S. 438 (1928).
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