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The Troubling Influence Of Equality In Constitutional Criminal Procedure: From Brown To Miranda, Furman And Beyond, Scott Howe

Scott W. Howe

This article identifies and critiques a theory of the criminal clauses revealed in Supreme Court decisions after Brown v. Board of Education. As the title implies, the article contends that the Court has often gone astray in constructing these clauses by focusing on equality. The article contends that the criminal clauses are better understood as discrete protections of individual liberty than as reflecting a unified theory or separate theories about equality. The article proposes a reformulation of doctrine in varied realms of constitutional criminal procedure, including police interrogation, capital sentencing and administrative searches and seizures.