Boyd V. US

The State or Federal Court Deciding and the Judge Writing the Decision: “All evidence obtained by searches and seizures in violation of the Federal Constitution is inadmissible in a criminal trial in a state court. Wolf v. Colorado, 338 U.S. 25, overruled insofar as it holds to the contrary.” Reversed by Mr. Justice Clark. Facts: “Appellant knowingly had in her possession and under her control certain lewd and lascivious books, pictures, and photographs in violation of 2905.34 of Ohio’s Revise Code. Supreme Court found that her conviction was valid, but the introduction of evidence of the books was unlawfully seized during an unlawful search of the defendant’s home”. May 23, 1957, three Cleveland police officers arrived at the appellant’s house due to receiving information that someone, who was wanted for questioning in

It is the court's’ responsibility to oversee and be mindful of the constitutional rights of the citizen, “and against any stealthy encroachments thereon”. Nearly thirty years after Boyd v. United States, the court in Weeks v. United States made it clear that the Fourth Amendment allowed the courts of the United States to exercise their power and authority with restraints and limitations. If the Fourth Amendment can not protect private documents from being seized unlawfully and used against a citizen accused of an offense, then it has no value and might as well be removed from the Constitution. The Court in the case Weeks v. United States stated that the “use of the seized evidence involved a ‘denial of the constitutional rights of the accused’”. In the year 1914 the Court held that evidence obtained in an unconstitutional search and seizure was barred in a federal prosecution by the Fourth