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Weeks v. United States | |
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Argued December 2–3, 1913 Decided February 24, 1914 | |
Full case name | Fremont Weeks v. United States |
Citations | 232 U.S. 383 (more) 34 S. Ct. 341; 58 L. Ed. 652; 1954 U.S. LEXIS 1368 |
Case history | |
Prior | Defendant convicted, W.D. Mo. Error to the District Court of the United States for the Western District of Missouri |
Holding | |
The warrantless seizure of documents from a private home violated the Fourth Amendment prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures, and evidence obtained in this manner is excluded from use in federal criminal prosecutions. Western District of Missouri reversed and remanded. | |
Court membership | |
| |
Case opinion | |
Majority | Day, joined by unanimous |
Laws applied | |
U.S. Const. amend. IV |
Weeks v. United States, 232 U.S. 383 (1914) was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court unanimously held that the warrantless seizure of items from a private residence constitutes a violation of the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.[1] It also prevented local officers from securing evidence by means prohibited under the federal exclusionary rule and giving it to their federal colleagues. It was not until the case of Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643 (1961), that the exclusionary rule was deemed to apply to state courts as well.