Supreme Court Steps Closer to Repeal of Evidence Ruling (WaPo)

[struggle4progress]

By ADAM LIPTAK
Published: January 30, 2009

WASHINGTON — In 1983, a young lawyer in the Reagan White House was hard at work on what he called in a memorandum “the campaign to amend or abolish the exclusionary rule” — the principle that evidence obtained by police misconduct cannot be used against a defendant ...

This month, Chief Justice Roberts, writing for the majority in Herring v. United States, a 5-to-4 decision, took a big step toward the goal he had discussed a quarter-century before. Taking aim at one of the towering legacies of the Warren Court, its landmark 1961 decision applying the exclusionary rule to the states, the chief justice’s majority opinion established for the first time that unlawful police conduct should not require the suppression of evidence if all that was involved was isolated carelessness. That was a significant step in itself. More importantyet, it suggested that the exclusionary rule itself might be at risk ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/31/washington/31scotus.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

[Demeter]

1. Good Enough Reason to Impeach Roberts! K&R