The Exclusionary Rule at Risk

A long­stand­ing part of U.S. law, known as the exclu­sion­ary rule, is get­ting bruised. The rule requires courts to exclude — or throw out — some evi­dence seized by law enforce­ment through ille­gal searches.

But a rul­ing last month by the Supremes allowed the pros­e­cu­tion of an Alabama man on drug-​​possession and gun-​​possession charges despite the fact that the con­tra­band was found through an ille­gal search. The 5-​​to-​​4 deci­sion in Herring v U.S. is being hailed as per­haps the start of the ful­fill­ment of a long­time con­ser­v­a­tive dream.

For more, see:

• Defendants’ Ability to Suppress Evidence Taking a Hit in the Wall Street Journal
• Why Does the U.S. Have an Exclusionary Rule?