Mapp v. Ohio

The decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in Mapp v. Ohio in 1961 is one of the seminal decisions in criminal procedure and race relations in American criminal justice. Mapp v. Ohio was decided during the tenure of the Warren Court, which in 1954 inaugurated the era of judicial recognition of civil rights with its decision in Brown v. Board of Education. In its decision in Mapp v. Ohio, the Supreme Court extended the existing rule that evidence obtained through an illegal search was inadmissible in federal courts, holding that such evidence was also inadmissible in state courts. Thus, the decision of Mapp v. Ohio extended to state law enforcement the existing protection of the Fourth Amendment in federal law enforcement. [Page 476]From the perspective of race relations, Mapp v. Ohio placed the nation on notice that, in the context of criminal procedure, the same standards applied at the federal level would apply throughout the nation. A continuation of the Warren Court's legacy of breathing life into the Bill of Rights, Mapp marked the beginning of a decade that brought great advances in civil rights for African Americans and other minorities, not only in the courts but also through legislation such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964.