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· 3/1/1920

Silverthorne Lumber Co. v. United States

Citations

  • 251 U.S. 385
  • 40 S. Ct. 182
  • 64 L. Ed. 319
  • 1920 U.S. LEXIS 1685

Syllabus

<p>The Fourth Amendment protects a corporation and its officers from compulsory production of the corporate books and papers for use in a criminal proceeding against them, when the information upon which the subpoenas were framed was derived by the Government through a previous unconstitutional search and seizure, planned and executed by its officials under color of a void writ; provided the defense of the Amendment be seasonably interposed, and not first raised as a collateral issue at the trial of the indictment. P. 391. Weeks v. United States, 232 U. S. 383, followed. Adams v. New York, 192 U. S. 585, distinguished.</p> <p>The rights of a corporation against unlawful search and seizure are to be protected even if it be not protected by the Fifth Amendment from compulsory production of incriminating documents. ' P. 392.</p> <p>Reversed.</p>

About this case

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1920 United States Supreme Court case

Silverthorne Lumber Co. v. United States, 251 U.S. 385 (1920), was a U.S. Supreme Court decision in which Silverthorne had attempted to evade paying taxes. Federal agents illegally seized tax books from Silverthorne and created copies of the records. The ruling, delivered by Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. , was that any evidence obtained, even indirectly, from an illegal search was inadmissible in court. He reasoned that otherwise, police would have an incentive to circumvent the Fourth Amendment to obtain derivatives of the illegally obtained evidence.[1] This precedent later became known as the "fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine,"[2] and is an extension of the exclusionary rule .

Chief Justice Edward Douglass White and Associate Justice Mahlon Pitney dissented without a written opinion.

See also

[(https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Silverthorne_Lumber_Co._v._United_States&action=edit&section=1 "Edit section: See also")
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Further reading

[(https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Silverthorne_Lumber_Co._v._United_States&action=edit&section=2 "Edit section: Further reading")
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  • Killian, B. J. (1982). "United States v. Crews: Fruit of the Poisonous Tree—A New Wrinkle?". Idaho Law Review. 18: 151. ISSN  0019-1205 .

References

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  1. ↑ Silverthorne Lumber Co. v. United States, 251 U.S. 385 (1920).
  2. ↑ _Nardone v. United States _, 308 U.S. 338 (1939).

External links

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United States Fourth Amendment case law

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Scope of the Fourth Amendment

Definition of search

Definition of seizure

Third-party entry

Fourth Amendment standing

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Warrant requirement

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Exceptions to warrant requirement

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Seizures

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Remedies

Exclusionary rule

Civil suit

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Incorporation against States

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Editorial context from Wikipedia (CC-BY-SA 4.0).

Judges: Holmes, Pitney

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