From Legal Musings and Geekery

Contents [hide] 1 Arrest, Search, and Seizure 1.1 Exclusionary Rule 1.1.1 Evolution 1.1.2 Good Faith Exception

[edit] Arrest, Search, and Seizure

[edit] Exclusionary Rule

• The state courts must exclude evidence obtained by unlawful searches and seizures. (Mapp)
  • Reasons to overturn Wolf:
    1. At the time of Wolf, 2/3 of states were opposed to the exclusionary rule. Not true today.
    2. Essential to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. (deterrence)
       1. Idea of removing incentives to disregard the laws.

[edit] Evolution

Cases and their reasoning for or against the Fourth Amendment.

• Weeks (1914) - Judicial sanction
• Wolf (1949) - deter violations of the Fourth Amendment.
• Mapp (1961) - Notions of judicial integrity, deterrence, no other remedy seems to work
• Leon (1984) - deterrence

Post-Leon, deterrence is considered to be the primary reason for the Exclusionary Rule.

[edit] Good Faith Exception

• The Fourth Amendment does not require the exclusion of evidence seized pursuant to a facially valid warrant where the police acted in good faith. (Leon)
  • The exclusionary rule was enacted in order to deter police conduct tending to deny constitutional rights. Where the police act in good faith, this deterrence does not exist.
• Kinports: "It's not the Exclusionary Rule's fault that the police weren't supposed to come into my house -- it's the police's fault."
• The reliance on the magistrate must be reasonable.
  • The police also can't lie or be reckless with respect to the evidence given to the magistrate.