Criminal Process: Investigation

This is a constitutional law course concentrating primarily on the Fourth Amendment, with some examination of the Fifth and Sixth Amendments. We will read many of the latest pronouncements by the Supreme Court in Criminal Procedure, which is one of the most rapidly expanding areas of Supreme Court discourse. In doing so, the course probes the constitutional constraints that regulate the conduct of state and federal law enforcement officers conducting criminal investigations. In addition to clarifying the law in this complex area, this course places particular emphasis on realistically examining how lower courts, the police and others in law enforcement actually use the criminal procedure rules. Areas to be covered include (but are not limited to): searches and seizures of persons and property, stop and frisk, arrest, profiling, the exclusionary rule, roadblocks, confessions, wiretapping, and police interrogations.