In the case of Lee v. United States, 1976, the Supreme Court ruled on whether a defendant's right to counsel was violated when his attorney failed to inform him about potential immigration consequences of pleading guilty. The petitioner Jae Lee, a legal resident but not citizen of the US for over three decades, faced deportation after pleading guilty to drug charges. His lawyer had incorrectly advised him that he would not be deported if he pleaded guilty. After realizing this mistake and facing imminent deportation proceedings post-conviction, Lee sought relief by arguing that his attorney provided ineffective assistance in violation of his Sixth Amendment rights. The Supreme Court held in favor of Mr. Lee stating that even though there was strong evidence against him which could lead to conviction at trial; it cannot be assumed automatically that no rational defendant charged with such crime would have gone ahead with trial instead of taking plea deal if they were aware about certain deportation afterwards as consequence.

In the dissenting opinion for Lee v. United States, Justice Brennan disagreed with the majority's interpretation of the Fourth Amendment and its application to this case. He argued that law enforcement officials violated Mr. Lee's constitutional rights by using a hidden microphone to record his conversation without obtaining a warrant first. According to Justice Brennan, this constituted an unreasonable search and seizure under the Fourth Amendment because it involved physical intrusion into a private space where Mr. Lee had an expectation of privacy - his car - in order to gather evidence against him. The fact that he was speaking with an undercover agent at the time did not diminish his reasonable expectation of privacy or justify bypassing warrant requirements, as per Katz v United States precedent which established that what "a person knowingly exposes to public... is not subject of Fourth Amendment protection." Therefore, Justice Brennan believed that any evidence obtained through such means should be excluded from trial.