Criminal Procedure - On a Clear Day, You Can See a Break with the Past - Retroactive Application of the Leon Standard in the Eighth Circuit - United States v. Sager

Abstract

INTRODUCTION|Throughout the intervening decades since the landmark retroactivity decision of Linkletter v. Walker, the issue of retroactive application of a new judicial decision construing the fourth amendment exclusionary rule has"[i]n the overwhelming majority of cases ... arise[n] in connection with a decision which expands Fourth Amendment protections." In a small but growing group of recent cases, the United States Supreme Court has handed down significant decisions which, in effect, have limited the fourth amendment. Because the retroactivity doctrine has developed around cases which expanded fourth amendment protections for individuals, theoretical inconsistencies arise when the doctrine is used in an attempt to determine the retroactivity of a decision limiting the exclusionary rule. The absence of United States Supreme Court precedent illuminating the problem of retroactive application of decisions limiting the exclusionary rule places the burden of resolving these inconsistencies on the lower courts...