Supreme Court Cases: The Mapp V. Ohio Case

Mapp v. Ohio Throughout the last 70 years, there have been many cases that the U.S. Supreme Court has decided upon leading to many advancements in the U.S. Constitution. Many of the cases have created laws that we still use today. In the case I chose, Dollree Mapp was convicted of possessing obscene materials, four little pamphlets, a couple of photos, and a little pencil doodle, after an illegal police search of her home for a suspected bomber. No suspect was found, but she was arrested. The Mapp v. Ohio case brought revolution to the Warren Court, which would affect procedural rights for the criminally accused, opening the door to many other rulings that would have great impact. Mapp dramatically changed the way state and local law enforcement officers do business by imposing

Police believed that Mapp was harboring a suspected bomber, and demanded entry. No suspect was found, but police discovered a trunk of obscene pictures in Mapp 's basement. Mapp was arrested for possessing the pictures, and was convicted in an Ohio court where she lost the case in fighting her for first amendment rights. Then, Mapp argued that her Fourth Amendment rights had been violated by the search of the officers and got her case taken to the U.S. Supreme Court where she won. At the time of the case, unlawfully seized evidence was banned from federal courts but not state courts, meaning that the evidence found in Mapp’s home was used against her in the Ohio court, but not the U.S. Supreme Court. A 6-3 decision was made for this case between the nine justices. The nine justices were Earl Warren, Hugo Black, Felix Frankfurter, William O. Douglas, Tom C.Clark, John M, Harlan II, WIlliam Brennan, Jr. Charles E. Whittaker, and Potter Stewart. The chief justice was Earl Warren. Clark, joined by Warren, Douglas and, Brennan were apart of the majority opinion which applied the exclusionary rule and several earlier decisions that had begun the