Court settles on narrower view of 4th Amendment: majority limits exclusionary rule, permits school drug testing and adopts a bright line on hearsay

Article Abstract:

Cases involving the Fourth Amendment returned to prominence on the Supreme Court's docket in the 1994-95 term, after several years of abbeyance. In AZ v Evans, the court ruled that computer errors not made by the police render illegally seized evidence admissible, and in Monell v Dept of Social Services, it immunized municiplities from officer errors. Vernonia School Dist v Acton was the most prominent Fourth Amendment case, and the ruling may herald much sharper limits on the rights of schoolchildren.

Mandatory drug testing, Drug testing, Evidence, Hearsay, Hearsay evidence, Exclusionary rule (Evidence), Exclusionary rule

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Crime docket was quiet: cases on the sentencing guidelines provided most of the action

Article Abstract:

The Supreme Court's criminal law decisions for the 1992-93 term were relatively mundane, tending to focus on the day to day questions faced by district and circuit courts. The court heard cases pertaining to sentencing guidelines and issued three decisions expanding the court's ability to increase sentences in certain instances. The court extended the power of searches by police forces, but put new limits on seizure. These issues, as well as forfeiture cases, are discussed.

Analysis, Sentences (Criminal procedure), United States. Supreme Court

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Prosecutors granted leeway in forfeitures; decisions give the government broad authority to expropriate criminal defendants' property

Article Abstract:

The government won in most of the criminal cases which the US Supreme Court decided during the 1995-96 term, and this is what is to be expected from a fundamentally conservative court. There were no major rulings but in US v. Ursery and Bennis v. Michigan, the court reassured prosecutors of their broad authority to make criminals forfeit property. Whren v. US was a search and seizure decision which made this task easier for police and prosecutors.

Forfeiture

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