Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Florida Law Review

Publication Date

1996

ISSN

1045-4241

Page Number

743

Keywords

criminal procedure, Supreme Court, Fourth Amendment

Disciplines

Criminal Procedure | Fourth Amendment | Law | Supreme Court of the United States

Abstract

If the assertions that this essay makes about the Court's "unfair" prosecution-orientation withstand scrutiny," two further conclusions might follow. First, the highest court in the country is so fixated on ensuring that a particular side wins that it is willing with some frequency to sacrifice the most basic attribute of any court worthy of the name-the appearance of fairness. This conclusion is a much more fundamental challenge to the Court's integrity than is the simple acknowledgement that a majority of the Justices are biased in favor of the government. Second, to the extent the Court's unfairness becomes common knowledge, its credibility with the general public could be damaged. The potential threat to the Court's status as the preeminent judicial institution in the nation may not be grave, but it is certainly not trivial.

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