The Supreme Court and the Fourth Amendment's Exclusionary Rule

The application of the Fourth Amendment's Exclusionary Rule has divided the Justices of the Supreme Court for nearly a century. As the legal remedy for when police violate the Fourth Amendment rights of a person and discover criminal evidence through illegal search and seizure, it is the most frequently litigated constitutional issue in United State's courts. Tracey Maclin'sThe Supreme Court and the Fourth Amendment's Exclusionary Ruletraces the rise and fall of the exclusionary rule using insight and behind-the-scenes access into the Court's thinking. Based on original archival research into the private papers of retired Justices, Professor Maclin's analysis clarifies the motivations and thoughts that explain the Court's exclusionary rule jurisprudence. He includes a comprehensive scholarly and objective discussion of the reasoning behind the Court decisions, and demonstrates that like other constitutional doctrines, the exclusionary rule is a political mechanism that expands and contracts as the times and Justices change. Ultimately, this book will help readers understand how constitutional law is constructed by judges with diverse political perspectives.

Professor Tracey Maclin is Professor of Law at Boston University School of Law where he has taught law school courses on constitutional law, criminal procedure and the Supreme Court for the past twenty-five years. In 1995, he was awarded the Metcalf Award for Excellence in Teaching, Boston University's highest teaching prize and has previously taught at Cornell Law School and Harvard Law School.

Professor Maclin has written many law review articles on the Fourth Amendment, including articles published in such journals as the Cato Supreme Court Review, the Cornell Law Review, the Southern California Law Review, the Vanderbilt Law Review, the Michigan Law Review and the Boston University Law Review.

In addition to his legal scholarship, he has authored over a dozen amicus curiae briefs and served as counsel of record for the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the Cato Institute in Fourth Amendment cases in the United States Supreme Court. He has also served as law clerk to Judge Boyce F. Martin, Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.