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Exclusionary rule would not apply to equal protection violations

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Even assuming a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment for a selective enforcement stop, the exclusionary would not apply to it. United States v. Nichols, 2008 U.S. App. LEXIS 788, 2008 FED App. 0026P (6th Cir. January 15, 2008): Even if the Fourth Amendment were implicated [in Whren], any challenge to a search or seizure based on legitimate probable cause, but in which it is alleged the officer's subjective motive was discriminatory, is doomed to fail. See Whren, 517 U.S. at 813 (unanimously rejecting such a challenge and holding that "[s]ubjective intentions play no role in ordinary, probable-cause Fourth Amendment analysis"). Though the Court left open the door to equal protection challenges in the same context, it gave no hint as to what the appropriate remedy would be...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on January 16, 2008 (boomark / email).