In Johansen v. United States, 1951, the U.S Supreme Court ruled on a case involving an immigrant who was facing deportation due to his past membership in the Communist Party. The petitioner, Johansen, had been a member of this party from 1920 until he left in 1937 and became a naturalized citizen in 1943. However, it was later discovered that he failed to disclose his previous affiliation with the Communist Party during his naturalization process which led to proceedings for denaturalization and deportation. The court held that even though Johansen's failure to disclose could be considered fraudulent misrepresentation under immigration law at that time; since there were no laws barring communists from becoming citizens when he applied for citizenship (the relevant legislation came into effect only after), it would not have affected the decision of whether or not to grant him citizenship if disclosed truthfully about his communist affiliations. Therefore, they concluded that while dishonesty is generally grounds for revoking citizenship; because disclosure wouldn't have changed anything regarding granting him citizenship at the time of application - thus making it immaterial - ,his deception did not warrant denaturalization or deportation.

In the dissenting opinion for Johansen v. United States, Justice Douglas argued that the majority's decision to uphold a conviction based on evidence obtained through warrantless wiretapping was inconsistent with previous Supreme Court rulings and violated Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. He contended that allowing such evidence would incentivize law enforcement agencies to engage in illegal surveillance practices, undermining citizens' privacy rights. Furthermore, he expressed concern about the potential misuse of this power by government authorities without proper checks or balances in place. In his view, any information gathered through unlawful means should be excluded from court proceedings regardless of its relevance or reliability as it is tainted by illegality from its inception.