What is the significance of the case mapp v. ohio

Possession of obscene materials was then illegal according to state law, and Mapp was arrested. In the fall of , she was tried, convicted, and sentenced to years in the penitentiary. No search warrant was produced at the trial, nor was the failure to produce one accounted for. Mapp's lawyer, Alexander L. Kearns, appealed to the Ohio Supreme Court on the basis that Ohio's obscenity law violated the right to privacy, and only secondarily that the conduct of the police in obtaining the evidence was unconstitutional.

The court affirmed the conviction, and despite the absence of a search warrant, also ruled that illegally seized evidence could be entered in a criminal trial. Kearns appealed the case to the U. Hopkins Plessy v. Ferguson Gideon v. Wainwright Griswold v. Connecticut Katz v. United States Brandenburg v. Ohio Tinker v. Des Moines New York Times v. United States Gregg v. Georgia Regents of Univ.

Cal v. Bakke Marbury V. Scott V. The Slaughter- house Cases. Lochner V. New York. Schenck V. United States. Korematsu V. Brown V. Board of Education. Mapp V. People of the State of Colorado. Although in Wolf the Court ruled that states are bound by the due process requirements of the Fourth Amendment, the majority opinion in that case also stated that the exclusionary rule--preventing improperly obtained evidence from being introduced in court--need not be applied in state court proceedings.

When Mapp took her case to the U. Supreme Court, her lawyers appealed her conviction primarily on First Amendment grounds. They argued that the state of Ohio had violated Mapp's right to freedom of thought and expression by making the mere possession of obscene material illegal. However, the American Civil Liberties Union also filed an amicus "friend of the court" brief in which it argued for a reconsideration of Wolf. Ohio Significance After Mapp, state police as well as state courts, where most criminal prosecutions take place, were obliged to follow the Fourth Amendment prohibition against illegal search and seizure.