Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, the exclusionary rule is what is not in the Constitution. It was not imposed upon the States as a mandatory Federal doctrine until the year 1961. And somehow the Republic made it all that way from the 18th century until 1961 without the exclusionary rule. Nevertheless, I support it as enunciated in the case Mapp versus Ohio and the circumstances they were talking about, an outrageous ignorance of following constitutional prescription, and the reason they imposed it on the States. But it makes no sense to impose it in a situation where an officer is in objective good faith. Although the last speaker said we should not change anything, the Supreme Court has already made a modification in the exclusionary rule by allowing this very good faith exception in the case where a warrant is obtained by police officers and the warrant is later held to be invalid, and that has not caused a wholesale violation of constitutional rights through that exception.”