June 19, 1961 – The Supreme Court Decides Mapp v. Ohio

Dollree Mapp was a Cleveland, Ohio woman who was, according to C-Span’s summary of the case, was “affiliated with the boxing and gambling scene” in the 1950s. When the police attempted to search her home for a suspect in a local bombing, she refused to let them in without a search warrant. The officers got reinforcements and forced their way into her home, holding up a piece of paper (subsequently “lost” by police) that was alleged to be a warrant.

During the ensuing struggle, police said they found obscene materials in the home, although Mapp maintained they had been planted by police. Nevertheless, she was convicted of possessing pornography. Her attorney argued that the evidence had been seized illegally (without a warrant) and thus should be excluded.

The case made its way to the US Supreme Court, becoming “the first in a series of decisions impacting protections for criminal defendants.”

Justice Tom Clark, authoring the 6-3 opinion of the court in Dollree MAPP, etc. Appellant, v. Ohio (367 U.S. 643), declared that “all evidence obtained by searches and seizures in violation of the Fourth Amendment is inadmissible in a state court.”

Justice Tom C. Clark, via Wikipedia

Justice Clark cited an earlier opinion that held “It is the duty of (the) courts to be watchful for the constitutional rights of the citizen, and against any stealthy encroachments thereon.”

Notably, he opined:

The criminal goes free, if he must, but it is the law that sets him free. Nothing can destroy a government more quickly than its failure to observe its own laws, or worse, its disregard of the charter of its own existence. As Mr. Justice Brandeis, dissenting, said in Olmstead v. United States, 1928, 277 U.S. 438, 485, 48 S.Ct. 564, 575, 72 L.Ed. 944: ‘Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. * * * If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.’”

The C-Span site on this landmark Supreme Court cases has links to numerous resources related to Mapp v. Ohio, including a video of Justice Souter discussing the decision.