Conservative Pragmatism Versus Liberal Principles: Warren E. Burger on the Suppression of Evidence, 1956-86
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Authors
Braswell, Mark K.
Scheb, John M. II
Issue Date
1987
Volume
20
Issue
Type
Journal Article
Language
Keywords
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Abstract
INTRODUCTION|Warren E. Burger's recent retirement as Chief Justice of the United States has made possible the assessment of his entire judicial career. Of the many important legal issues upon which Burger had an appreciable impact, perhaps the most salient and controversial was the exclusionary rule. Sometimes referred to as the suppression doctrine, the exclusionary rule bars prosecutors from using illegally obtained evidence in criminal trials. Burger was putatively one of the harshest judicial critics of the exclusionary rule, and is generally regarded as having led Supreme Court efforts to restrict the scope of the suppression doctrine. Indeed, as early as 1972, shortly after Burger joined the High Court, he was already regarded by one scholar as a "long-time implacable foe" of the exclusionary rule. While it is quite clear that, as Chief Justice, Burger's position on the exclusionary rule was decidedly negative, it is not true, as many seem to have assumed, that Burger consistently maintained a single, ardently negative position on this issue throughout his judicial career. Rather, his views on the suppression of tainted evidence appear to have evolved substantially during his thirty years in the federal judiciary, moving through distinct stages of development...
Description
Citation
20 Creighton L. Rev. 789 (1986-1987)
Publisher
Creighton University School of Law