Has SCOTUS Evolved Beyond the Evolving Standards of Decency?

The Warren Court — the period from 1953 to 1969 when Earl Warren was chief justice — is recognized as one of the most progressively liberal U.S. Supreme Court periods. Among other landmark decisions, the Warren Court decided Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643 (1961) (applying the Fourth Amendment exclusionary rule to the states); Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335 (1963) (holding that under the Sixth and 14th Amendments an indigent criminal defendant has the right to the appointment of counsel); Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963) (holding that the suppression by the prosecution of evidence favorable to an accused violates due process where the evidence is material either to guilt or to punishment); Massiah v. United States, 377 U.S. 201 (1964) (prohibiting the use at trial of deliberately elicited statements from the defendant by government agents after the Sixth Amendment right to counsel attaches); Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966) (holding that a defendant must waive certain rights — the Miranda waiver — before the government can use at trial statements obtained from a defendant under custodial interrogation); and Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 (1968) (not a progressive opinion, but one of the most consequential Fourth Amendment cases ever, permitting a brief seizure and frisk of a suspect based on reasonable, articulable suspicion).

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