In the 1970 case Donaldson, FKA Sweet v. United States et al., the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on whether a summons issued by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to a third-party record keeper could be enforced without first providing notice to the taxpayer under investigation. The petitioner, Donaldson, argued that this practice violated his Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches and seizures as well as his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself. However, in an 8-1 decision led by Justice Byron White, the court held that these constitutional protections were not applicable in this context because IRS summonses are not "searches," and they do not compel taxpayers themselves to disclose anything potentially incriminating. Therefore, it was concluded that no prior notice is required before issuing such summonses.

In the dissenting opinion for Donaldson v. United States, Justice Douglas argued that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) had overstepped its bounds by using a summons to gather evidence against Mr. Donaldson in what was essentially a criminal investigation. He contended that this violated his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination and due process of law because it forced him to produce documents which could be used as evidence of tax evasion, without any prior judicial approval or oversight. Furthermore, he criticized the majority's reliance on previous cases involving regulatory agencies like the Federal Trade Commission and Securities Exchange Commission since these were civil matters rather than criminal ones like tax evasion charges brought by IRS.