Mapp v.

Ohio (June 1961)

Three police officers went to Miss Dollree Mapp’s house without a search warrant after they
received information that she could be suspect in a bombing case and illegal betting equipment
could be found in her house. The officers returned three hours later with several more officers.
The defendant is Dollree Mapp. The plaintiff is Ohio. The question the court had to answer was,
Where the confiscated materials protected by the first amendment?

The court ruled on a 6-3 vote that all materials obtained in searches and seizures in violation
of the constitution are inadmissible in court. The majority opinion given by justice Clark said
that exclusionary rule should apply to all illegally obtained evidence. The dissenting opinion was
made by justice Harlan, and it said that the concern was not with the exclusionary rule, but with
the question of whether the states are constitutionally free to follow it or not.

This case helped overturn the silver platter doctrine and that exclusionary rule is now used in
courts.