Carolyn Long, WSU Vancouver associate professor, follows a police raid into Ohio resident Dollree Mapp’s home and then chronicles the events that led to the Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling, which redefined the rights of the accused and set strict limits on how police could obtain and use evidence.
In her recently published book, “Mapp v. Ohio: Guarding Against Unreasonable Searches and Seizures,” Long traces the case through the legal labyrinth, discusses the controversies it created, and assesses its impact on police behavior as well as subsequent prosecutions and convictions of the accused. She also analyzes Justice Tom Clark’s creative use of Mapp’s case to overturn Wolf v. Colorado, which had ruled that the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable searches applied only to federal law, and presents Justice John Harlan’s strong federalist-based dissent.
Mapp was a poor but proud black woman who defied a predominantly white police force by challenging the legality of its search-and-seizure methods. Her case, which went all the way to the Supreme Court, remains hotly debated and highly controversial today.
In 1957, Cleveland police raided Mapp’s home on a tip from future fight promoter Don King that they’d find evidence linked to a recent bombing.
What they confiscated instead was sexually explicit material that led to Mapp’s conviction for possessing “lewd and lascivious books” — a conviction that initially pitted Ohio police and judges against Mapp and the American Civil Liberties Union. At stake was not only the search-and-seizure question, but also the “exclusionary rule” concerning the use of evidence not specified in a search warrant.
This book is part of the “Landmark Law Cases and American Society” series.
Long also is author of “Religious Freedom and Indian Rights: The Case of Oregon v. Smith”.
