Fourth Amendment Commons^™

Defending The Citadel: The Dangerous Attack Of "Reasonable Good Faith", Stanley Ingber

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Article presents arguments that are designed to influence the Court's deliberations, to create a basis for critiquing the Court's opinions once rendered, and to provide guidance for state courts, which soon may need to decide whether a good faith exception is consistent with their state constitutions and procedures. To place the subsequent discussion in context, part I of the Article briefly sketches the historical development of the exclusionary rule. Part II develops the general arguments against the exclusionary rule and the specific arguments in favor of a good faith exception. Part III exposes the conceptual flaws of the exception …

Use Of Surveillance Evidence Under Title Iii, Thomas C. Banks

Vanderbilt Law Review

The rationale offered by Congress for requiring immediate sealing of wiretapping tapes by the court upon the completion of the interception period is to preserve the integrity of the tapes by preventing any tape tampering, alteration, editing, or other governmental bad faith. Congress, however, also added an exception to the sealing requirement that permits disclosure of the tapes' contents in a judicial proceeding if the government has contravened the sealing requirement yet has offered a satisfactory explanation for either a failure to seal or a delay in sealing. No circuit court treats sealing requirement violations in a manner that effects …

Colloquy, Mr. Wiseman, Professor Uviller, Ms. Rosen, Professor Zeisel, Professor Reiss, Mr. Washington, Mr/ Carrington, Ms. Collins, Professor Tonry, Mr. Hishta

Vanderbilt Law Review

At present, our system of criminal law administration has a considerable Rube Goldberg quality to it. Once the system decides to imprison a particular defendant--if we except from the generalization the couple of states that recently changed their laws in fundamental respects--the judge naturally asks himself what will happen when this man goes to prison. The answer is that the convicted offender will sit in prison for as long as the parole board wants him to. The judge must next consider whether any constraints exist on the parole board's decisions on when to release people from prison. In a third …

The Fourth Amendment And The "Legitimate Expectation Of Privacy", Gerald G. Ashdown

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Article does not endeavor to engage in a debate over the efficacy or deterrent effect of the exclusionary rule.' Nevertheless, it should be noted that these decisions appear questionable. It seems clear that a refusal to apply the rule in cases of particular fourth amendment transgressions will produce no incremental deterrence of unlawful police conduct, and inconsistent application of the rule arguably could diminish whatever deterrent value does exist.Therefore, if deterrence is viewed as the primary--if not only-function of the exclusionary rule, that goal should be promoted through thorough and consistent application of the rule.The Supreme Court, however, has …

Limiting The Application Of The Exclusionary Rule: The Good Faith Exception, Meredith B. Brinegar

Vanderbilt Law Review

The Supreme Court does not believe that the deterrent value of the exclusionary rule is sufficiently well established to merit broadening the rule's scope. The Court nonetheless has not yet carved out a blanket exception to the rule based solely on a lack of deterrent value. The Fifth Circuit decided in Williams that the exclusionary rule is not an effective deterrent in the good faith mistake or technical violations cases. It therefore removed these fourth amendment violations from exclusionary rule doctrine. Although the Fifth Circuit correctly reasoned that the Supreme Court would support the exception in the case of police …

"Doing Business": Defining State Control Over Foreign Corporations, William A. Holby

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Note will attempt to analyze the present status of the term "doing business" or the substitute terminology used to define that level of activity sufficient to subject a foreign corporation to state control in a particular context.' After defining the degree of activity necessary to permit the state to exercise control in each context, this Note will analyze the accuracy and utility of using terminology such as "doing business" in describing whether corporate activity within a state is sufficient to permit state exercise of legislative or judicial jurisdiction. This Note concludes by pro-posing that use of such ambiguous language …

Constitutional Constraints On Initiative And Referendum, David J. Jordan

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Note examines possible constitutional constraints on initiative and referendum. Part II briefly discusses typical initiative and referendum procedures and contrasts these with representative legislative processes. Part III examines the constitutional significance of the differences highlighted in Part II. Finally, Part IV concludes that because of the peculiar political dynamics of initiative and referendum, which diminish normal safeguards of minority interests, courts may appropriately apply heightened due process and equal protection standards when reviewing direct legislation.

Recent Cases, Daniel P. Smith, R. Michael Moore

Vanderbilt Law Review

Courts Split on the Necessity of Separate Authorization for a Covert Entry Under Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968

Daniel Paul Smith

Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968,' which regulates the use of electronic surveillance, was designed to protect "the privacy of wire and oral communications,"and to delineate "on a uniform basis the circumstances and conditions under which the interception of wire and oral communications may be authorized."' In general, communications may be intercepted only by law enforcement officers, who are engaged in the investigation of …

The Constitutional Dilemma Of A Person Predisposed To Criminal Behavior, John A. Chandler, Stanley F. Rose

Vanderbilt Law Review

The basic premise of American criminal jurisprudence is that individuals are capable of controlling their behavior.' The threat of incarceration is intended to be a deterrent to antisocial conduct. State and federal penal systems are called "correctional institutions"--implying that a person is incarcerated in order to modify unacceptable behavior. Criminal laws are drafted with goals of discouraging antisocial conduct,punishing and reforming the guilty, and protecting society against dangerous individuals. The first two purposes are served only if a person can respond to negative reinforcement by conducting himself in socially acceptable ways. Individuals incapable of controlling antisocial behavior are not accounted …

Book Review, Lyman R. Patterson

Vanderbilt Law Review

A revolution wrought by judges with the pen is more rare than one carried out by citizens with arms. The Warren Court did make a revolution--"the due process revolution," as the-- author calls it--and it is this transformation in our law that is the subject of Fred Graham's book, The Self-Inflicted Wound. The wound referred to in the title is Miranda v. Arizona,' in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that before the police can interrogate an accused in custody, they must warn him that he is entitled to a lawyer and that anything he says may …

The Origin Of The Sacco-Vanzetti Case, Tom O'Connor

Vanderbilt Law Review

For the first time in the thirty-three years since Sacco and Vanzetti were executed, on August 23, 1927, there has appeared an apologia for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The work bears the title: Sacco-Vanzetti: The Murder and the Myth. The author is Robert H. Montgomery, a Harvard Law School graduate (1912) and a corporation lawyer in Boston for nearly fifty years. His clients include textile mills, such as the American Woolen Company (center of the famous Lawrence Strike of 1911), New England Telephone & Telegraph Co., and large electric power interests. The approach of Attorney Montgomery to the Sacco-Vanzetti case …

Federal Law Of Search And Seizure As An Incident To Lawful Arrest In The Light Of The Case Of Harris V. United States, C.D. Berry, N.C. Frost

Vanderbilt Law Review

The recent widely discussed case of Harris v. United States further complicates that already complex phase of search and seizure which relates to the extent to which officers may search as an incident to a lawful arrest. The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution provides: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon prob-able cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to he seized." It has …