The End of an Experiment in Federalism—A Note on Mapp v. Ohio

When one views the full panoply of constitutional rights from the perspective of total United States Supreme Court history, he soon becomes aware that relatively few cases have directed that Court's attention to the constitutional immunity from unreasonable searches and seizures. However, the right expressed by the fourth amendment is obviously one of the most fundamental' for it gives legal protection to the "right of a man to privacy in his home, a right which is one of the indispensable ultimate essentials of our concept of civilization." Since this right is "basic to a free society"' and "implicit in the concept of ordered liberty,"' one might be led to think that the cases presenting it would be easily solved. Little could be farther from the truth.