Exclusionary Rule

The Future of the Exclusionary Rule

The first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, otherwise known as the Bill of Rights, were designed to protect citizens against abusive state power. These protections include preventing the government from entering and seizing property without just cause or stripping citizens of their rights without due process (Oaks 665). These protections are encoded within the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

Enforcing these rights, paradoxically, is also the responsibility of the government. Fortunately, the Constitutional framers created three independent branches of the government, thereby providing a mechanism through which one branch could limit the power and reach of the other two branches. When it comes to the protections encoded in the Bill of Rights, the judicial branch has taken the leading role in checking the powers of the legislative and executive branches of the federal government, as well...
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