27 Section 2.4: The Civil Rights Revolution
A political pendulum, swinging back and forth from liberal to conservative, marks the history of the U.S. Supreme Court. Obviously, conservative courts are courts composed of conservative justices, usually appointed by conservative presidents. Liberal courts, on the other hand, are composed of liberal justices, usually appointed by liberal presidents. These courts are often characterized by the name of the chief justice at the time. During the 1960s, the pendulum swung to the apex of liberalism when Chief Justice Earl Warren (1953 – 1969) led it. The Warren Court adhered to Packer’s Due Process Model, at least after the judicial activists achieved a majority on the court with the retirement of Justice Frankfurter’s retirement in 1962. This date marks the true beginning of the civil rights revolution. This liberal court, headed by Warren, emphasized civil rights across the legal spectrum. The most enduring changes in criminal justice occurred in their interpretations of the Fourth Amendment and Fifth Amendments, with many landmark cases coming down that were designed by the court to shield citizens from the abuse of police powers.
Prior to the 1960’s, the Supreme Court rarely interfered in the way that states ran their own criminal justice systems. The 1960s was a time of rapid social change, and that change is reflected in the decisions of the Warren Court. When the Warren court passed down its decision in Mapp v. Ohio in 1961, the criminal justice system in America was changed forever. However, this was only the beginning. Over the reminder of Warren’s tenure as Chief Justice, the court would hand down many more decisions that would redefine the American legal landscape in terms of civil liberties.
A more conservative Supreme Court, back in 1949, stated that the exclusionary rule applied only to federal law enforcement officers. According to the ruling in Wolf v. Colorado (1949), if citizens had any protection against illegally obtained evidence being used against them in court, it was up to state supreme courts to interpret state constitutions in such a way. Many courts did implement the exclusionary rule on the state level, following the lead of the U.S. Supreme Court, but some did not. When Mapp overruled Wolf, the exclusionary rule was applied to all law enforcement in the United States, no matter what level of government employed them.
Another landmark decision influencing law enforcement practice passed down by the Supreme Court was Chimel v. California (1969). Today, we teach that Chimel established an exception to the warrant requirement known as a search incident to arrest. As an exception to the search warrant requirement, this may seem like a case that fits Packer’s crime control model. This is because an exception to the search warrant requirement is generally considered to benefit law enforcement, and is thus a victory for law and order at the expense of a civil right. The facts of the cas