In the case of Barnes v. United States in 1972, the Supreme Court ruled on a matter concerning federal bank robbery laws. The defendants, Barnes and others, were convicted for violating these laws by robbing a bank while armed with dangerous weapons and assaulting individuals during the course of that robbery. They appealed their convictions arguing that they should not have been charged separately for both offenses as it constituted double jeopardy - being tried twice for essentially the same crime. However, the Supreme Court disagreed with this argument stating that Congress intended to impose separate penalties for each offense under different sections of Title 18 U.S.C., which deals with crimes and criminal procedure. Therefore, charging them separately did not violate their Fifth Amendment rights against double jeopardy because each charge required proof of an additional fact which other did not require.

In the dissenting opinion for Barnes v. United States, Justice Douglas argued that the majority's decision to uphold a conviction based on evidence obtained through warrantless wiretapping was an infringement of Fourth Amendment rights. He contended that this ruling would set a dangerous precedent by allowing law enforcement agencies to bypass constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and seizures in their pursuit of criminal convictions. Furthermore, he expressed concern about potential abuses of power and violations of privacy rights resulting from unchecked surveillance activities by government authorities. In his view, the Court should have ruled in favor of protecting individual liberties rather than endorsing state intrusion into personal communications without proper judicial oversight or probable cause.