This unit will explore the nationalization of the Bill of Rights in regards to criminal procedure in American society. It will cover the Amendments listed above and demonstrate that the Fourteenth Amendment, particularly in areas concerning due process, was used to nationalize the Bill of Rights. The nationalization of the Bill of Rights is an important legal and historical development because it gives students insight into various areas of the American criminal justice process generally and issues concerning civil liberties in particular. Many students may take the civil liberties they now possess for granted.
This unit will also demonstrate that the Civil Rights era of the 1960’s helped to bring to the fore the abuses of government agents. This era focused greater attention upon the Fourteenth Amendment as well. While more modern attempts (1960’s) to nationalize the Fourteenth Amendment have brought about more expansive interpretations of the Bill of Rights, not much attention has been paid to the fact that in most cases, those making challenges based upon the aforementioned Amendments have been non-Whites. This is a glaring omission, especially when one considers the centrality of the Civil Rights Era in discussions of history generally, and Black history in particular.
This unit will also demonstrate the impact of social and political consciousness upon the expansion or contraction of civil liberties in America. For example, did the Civil Rights Era influence the United States Presidents to appoint more liberal Supreme Court Justices with more expansionist philosophies of the Fourth, Fifth, Six, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments? Or did the appointments themselves give rise to a more liberal political and social atmosphere which strengthened the Civil Rights Movement? Perhaps the two are interconnected pieces of the same legal and political puzzle. What is certain, however, is that the impact of certain constitutional provisions are dependent upon how they are interpreted by the judiciary in the course of adjudicating individual cases.
Finally, this unit will discuss the significance of due process and its resulting effects upon the American criminal justice system. It will also discuss the recent attempts to constrict search and seizure laws for criminal defendants by giving police officers more leeway in their use of reasonable suspicion. It will also discuss the validity of evidence obtained without a warrant.