Fourth Amendment issues
concepts
A mail cover refers to the process of making a nonconsensual record of any data appearing on the outside of any class of mail. The U.S. Supreme Court decision in Ex Parte Jackson (1878) established that governmental agents were required to obtain a search warrant before opening mail, but courts did not apply similar standards to information on the outside of envelopes prior to the decision in Katz v. United States (1967). [Source: Encyclopedia of the Fourth Amendment; Mail Covers]
mail covers