He pointed out that no one in this case had directly challenged the Swift regime, which the Court had adhered to for so long in so many cases.

In a dissenting opinion, Justices John Paul Stevens and Ruth Bader Ginsburg said the Court should have adhered to the basic presumption that a warrant was required.

She said the Court should have adhered to its "time-honored practice of not reaching constitutional questions unnecessarily."

Consequently, the Court should adhere to its precedent, he said.

Courts have long adhered to the somewhat curious notion that while the paper on which a let-ter is written belongs to the recipient, its content remains the property of the sender and can be copyrighted.

He said the rule that the Court should ordinarily adhere to its precedents "is a bedrock necessity if we are going to have in our judicial systems anything that can be called the rule of law."

The Court has adhered to that definition in varying statutory situations.

This inequality would still be legal if in Brown v. Board of Education the Court had adhered to precedent.

Final judgment in the Hanner case is expected during the year but, usually, the Court of Justice adheres to the opinion of the Advocate-General.