United States v. Leon

This study traces the history and assesses the impact of the United States v. Leon. The thesis of this study is that the motivations for the pursuit of this case by the government and justifications for the decision criteria applied by the United States Supreme Court were both inconsistent with and hostile to the preservation of Fourth Amendment constitutional protections, and that the ruling of the United States Supreme Court in United States v. Leon weakened Fourth Amendment protections against illegal search and seizure.

The case of the United States v. Leon began in 1981 when an informant communicated to police in Burbank, California information concerning persons selling controlled narcotic substances. Police investigations eventually implicated Alberto Leon, and following a warranted search of Leon's residence, charged were laid against Leon. The case eventually reached the United States Supreme Court, which rendered its decision in mid1984. The social milieu prevailing in the United States in the firsthalf of the 1980s, thus, was relevant to both the prosecution and the judicial deliberations of United States v. Leon.

Three aspects of the American social milieu of the firsthalf of the 1980sthe national war on drugs, a get tough on crime and criminals mentality, and a drive for economic efficiency in governmentwere particularly cogent with respect to

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ssues in the appeal. The government questioned (1) whether the independent examination standard is applicable to appellate review of a district court's conclusion that an affidavit does not establish probable cause for the issuance of a search warrant, (2) whether the district court erred in concluding that the search warrant affidavit failed to establish probable cause, and (3) whether the evidence seized under an invalid search warrant should be suppressed if the police acted in good faith. The United States Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit found that (1) the Court of Appeal could conduct an independent examination, (2) the district court correctly found that the affidavit was insufficient to establish probable cause, and (3) that, as the Ninth Circuit Court had not heretofore recognized a good faith exception to the exclusionary rule, the Ninth Court would not follow the lead of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals which recognized such an exception in United States v. Williams in 1980. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the ruling of the United States District Court in the United States v. Leon, and the United States attorneys petitioned the United States Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari in the case. The writ of
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Approximate Word count = 8611
Approximate Pages = 34 (250 words per page)

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