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Dickerson And The Future Of Miranda, Brenda E. Mallinak

Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest

Dickerson v. United States is one such case where the Fourth Circuit considered §3501 sua sponte and applied the statute in the absence of Miranda warnings. This action by the Fourth Circuit raises four issues which will be addressed in this paper. Part I addresses the issue of whether the federal executive branch can decline to enforce a law passed by Congress will be examined, as well as the related question of whether, in the face of executive refusal to use a law, can the courts sua sponte rely on that law to decide a case. In Part 11 the …