PROHIBITION AND THE DOCTRINE OF THE WEEKS CASE

One of the most disputed present day questions is whether evidence obtained in violation of constitutional guarantees against unreasonable searches and seizures should be admissible. The case of Weeks v. United States is perhaps the leading authority upon the proposition that evidence procured by officers through unreasonable search is not admissible. The holding may be justified upon how theories, vis., (1) that the admission of the evidence substantially violates the rule against self-incrimination in the Fifth Amendment, (2) that the exclusion of the evidence is the only practical means of enforcing the guarantee against unreasonable searches and seizures.