Supreme Court Case
Presentation
By Nicholas Childers
Search and Seizure
• Looking through personal property to find
evidence of a crime or tort.
Wolf v. Colorado
• Julius Wolf (the “petitioner”) was convicted by
a State court of conspiring to commit
abortions based upon evidence allegedly
obtained in violation of the Fourth
Amendment’s search and seizure clause.
Wolf v. Colorado
Decision
• Majority Opinion
• Any evidence found in violation of the 4th
Amendment was not usable in the court.
• Exclusionary Rule- any evidence found by
violating your constitutional right is excluded
and any evidence it leads to is also excluded
-the fruit of the poisonous tree
Wolf v. Colorado
• “the Weeks exclusionary rule is a federal court
construct that is not found implicitly in the
Fourth Amendment of the Constitution nor is
a law promulgated by Congress.”
New Jersey v. TLO
• The Vice-principal of the school searched a
student and found evidence that she was
dealing Marijuana.
• VP caught two students smoking and searched
one of them and found cigarette paper,
Marijuana, a pipe, many one dollar bills, and a
list of people who owed her money.
New Jersey v. TLO
Decision
• Majority Opinion
• 4th Amendment right was not violated
• School officials do not need a warrant to
search students within their authority.
New Jersey v. TLO
• “The majority observed “[i]t is now beyond
dispute that “the Federal Constitution, by
virtue of the Fourteenth Amendment,
prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures
by state officers… but does not need a warrant
to search a student under their authority”
Citation Page
• http://www.casebriefs.com/blog/law/criminal
-procedure/criminal-procedure-keyed-tosaltzburg/searches-and-seizures-of-personsand-things/wolf-v-colorado-3/
• http://www.casebriefs.com/blog/law/criminal
-procedure/criminal-procedure-keyed-toweinreb/the-fourth-amendment-arrest-andsearch-and-seizure/new-jersey-v-tlo/