In May 1957, Dollree Mapp found police at her door, demanding she let them in. She immediately called her lawyer, who told her to read their search warrant. But what happened when she asked to see the warrant – and they refused?
Mapp grabbed the paper they claimed was a warrant, but the cops grabbed it back and started to rummage through her home. Eventually, they found some “sexually explicit” books and a drawing.
That wasn’t enough for a charge, right? Wrong.
Under Ohio’s “possession of obscene material” felony, Mapp was punished with up to seven years in prison!
But she appealed, and her case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The justices laughed at the ridiculous obscenity felony, but Mapp’s case made history in another HUGE way.
They realized that the cops didn’t have a proper warrant, bringing the Fourth Amendment into question. If police searched and seized Mapp’s home illegally, could any “evidence” even be admissible? Five Supreme Court justices said NO! Mapp’s case was thrown out.
And a rule banning evidence obtained through illegal police misconduct became effective nationally.
When cops tried to take her down, Mapp not only refused to let them get away with it, but made judicial history. Today, from Breonna Taylor to Amir Locke, we must also be empowered to challenge policing’s systemic abuse of power.