Law Commons^™

Moment Of Truth, Richard C. Reuben

Faculty Publications

While the technical sophistication of today's polygraphs is far beyond the cathode-tube stuff of the 1920s, many lawyers and judges continue to view them as inherently unreliable and overly prejudicial. Their concern is that the procedure does not test whether a subject is telling the truth but measures physiological responses to questions- which may reveal much, but not necessarily the truth. But this fall, the U.S. Supreme Court will consider, in United States v. Scheffer, No. 96-1133, whether to finally lift the barrier to admissibility of polygraph evidence, at least in the federal courts, on grounds that it inhibits the …