Weeks v. United States - Significance, Great Principles Must Not Be Sacrificed, A Personal Right Of The Defendant?, Impact

court petitioner decision justices

Petitioner

Fremont Weeks

Respondent

United States

Petitioner's Claim

That his house was searched and his papers seized without a search warrant and thus the papers should not be admissible in court as evidence against him.

Chief Lawyer for Petitioner

Martin J. O'Donnell

Chief Lawyers for Respondent

Denison, U.S. Assistant Attorney General; John William Davis, U.S. Solicitor General

Justices for the Court

William Rufus Day (writing for the Court), Oliver Wendell Holmes, Charles Evans Hughes, Joseph Rucker Lamar, Horace Harmon Lurton, Joseph McKenna, Mahlon Pitney, Willis Van Devanter, Edward Douglass White

Justices Dissenting

None

Place

Washington, D.C.

Date of Decision

24 February 1914

Decision

Reversed the decision of a district court and held that evidence obtained by unreasonable searches and seizures could not be used against a person in federal court.

Related Cases

Ex parte Jackson, 96 U.S. 727 (1877).
Boyd v. United States, 116 U.S. 616 (1886).
Bram v. United States, 168 U.S. 532 (1897).
Holt v. United States, 218 U.S. 245 (1910).
Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643 (1961).

Sources

Levy, Leonard W., ed. Encyclopedia of the American Constitution. New York: Macmillan, 1986.

Additional Topics

Weeks v. United States - Significance

Weeks v. United States marked the creation of the exclusionary rule, which originally stated that evidence obtained in violation of the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable search and seizure could not be used against a person in federal court. Before the decision in Weeks v. United States, the courts admitted illegally seized material as evidence to avoid allowing guilty parties to …

Weeks v. United States - Great Principles Must Not Be Sacrificed

Justice Day wrote the unanimous opinion of the Court. Day reviewed the history of the Fourth Amendment, noting that it was based on the premise that a man's house was his castle and thus should not be invaded. This feature of the Constitution was written to prevent the kind of general warrants issued by the government in colonial times. Based on the case, Ex parte Jackson, the prohibition against …

Weeks v. United States - The Silver Platter Doctrine

Weeks in 1914 established not only the exclusionary rule, but also an exception to the exclusionary rule called the "Silver Platter Doctrine." This exception covered situations in which federal law-enforcement officers had evidence "handed to them on a silver platter"--Justice Felix Frankfurter's phrase--by state authorities. The key idea here was the participation of state law-enforcement personn…

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User Comments

about 2 years ago

who authored majoritey opinion in the Weeks v. United States?

about 3 years ago

Daniel White

Federal Court is held in DC infront of the Supreme court Justice, and State court is held in state in front of just a regular court and Justice and everything. I realize that doesn't sound professional but it's the easiest way to explain.

about 4 years ago

Thank you so much your information has been very helpful. I have a question what is the different between federal and state court