Mapp v. Ohio: Plaintiff in Landmark Civil Rights Case Dies

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Dollree Mapp, the appellant in a groundbreaking case, Mapp v. Ohio, which fundamentally strengthened our Fourth Amendment rights, has passed away.

Despite being in a landmark Supreme Court case, it took about a month after Mapp's death for the media to take notice. The New York Times reports that Mapp was believed to be 90 or 91 when she died October 31 in or near Conyers, Georgia.

In remembrance, let's review the Mapp case and all it has done for civil rights.

Mapp Defied Police Wanting to Search her Home

More than 57 years ago, police officers showed up at Dollree Mapp's home in Cleveland, Ohio, demanding that they be let inside. Authorities believed that there was a bomber hiding inside the home, and they requested that Mapp let them in. She refused, asking for a search warrant which police never really produced. The whole incident ended with police forcing their way into Mapp's home, searching her and her daughter's room, and eventually arresting Mapp based on some sexually explicit materials they found.

Four years later, Mapp had appealed her obscenity conviction all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, perhaps hoping to get it thrown out on the basis of a First Amendment free speech argument. But lo and behold, the Supreme Court took a significant look at the police searches in Mapp's case and determined that they violated her Fourth Amendment rights.

And even more importantly, they determined that the exclusionary rule applied, throwing out the evidence gained from the illegal search of Mapp's house.

Warrantless Search Evidence Excluded in All Courts

Prior to Mapp, the exclusionary rule had only been successfully used to exclude evidence that was the fruit of an illegal search or seizure in federal court. The rule came out of a 1914 case, Weeks v. United States, which, prior to Mapp, did not apply to state police or state courts.

With state police and prosecutors now threatened with the thought of losing their cases as the result of Fourth Amendment violations, more care would be taken to safeguard suspects' rights -- at least hypothetically. Future courts would carve out exceptions to the exclusionary rule that were seen as eroding Mapp (inevitable discovery, good faith on a defective warrant, etc.)

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Mapp v. Ohio: Plaintiff in Landmark Civil Rights Case Dies

Flipside 10 Bitcoin News: Microsoft courts BitPay, Reddit to add Bitcoin, Blockchain.info Spanked – Video

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Flipside 10 Bitcoin News: Microsoft courts BitPay, Reddit to add Bitcoin, Blockchain.info Spanked
Tips: 1AQkMkRX3UMWqtzsY3UtdJPZaQTVTFTFGQ Twitter: https://twitter.com/djbooth007/ Episode 10: You can now use Bitcoin to add money to your Microsoft account to buy apps, games, and other...

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Flipside 10 Bitcoin News: Microsoft courts BitPay, Reddit to add Bitcoin, Blockchain.info Spanked - Video

Instead of Fighting Bitcoin, the US Could Make Its Own Digital Currency

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The US government has been seriously studying bitcoin for about two years now. The FBI knows how to seize the digital currency. The Marshals Service knows how to sell it. The IRS knows how to tax it. And now, the Federal Reserve should copy it.

So says James Angel, a professor of economics at Georgetown University. He thinks the government should create what he calls bitdollar, a bitcoin-like digital currency thats backed by the US dollar.

Yes, many believe the whole point of bitcoin is to separate money from the governments of the world. But bitcoin also seeks to create an open payment network anyone can use without jumping through the hoops that encumber, say, credit card or international money transfer networks, and Angel thinks the government can help accomplish such a thing. He is among those who believe the really powerful idea is bitcoin as a payment system, rather than bitcoin as a currency.

I think Janet Yellen ought to get out in front of this.

A bitdollar would help bring the idea of an open payment network to maturity, he says, and because it would be backed by the dollar, it could bring new life to foreign countries struggling for economic stability, such as Venezuela, by giving them a stable digital currency. I think Janet Yellen ought to get out in front of this, Angel says, referring to the head of the Federal Reserve, to basically put some competition into the payment space.

Angel isnt alone in exploring a merger between government and bitcoin. The worlds governments already are looking for ways to regulate bitcoin. And the Canadian government has explored its very own digital currency, MintChip, which is something akin to Angels proposal.

The Canadians eventually shelved their MintChip dreams, but the rise of digital currencies seems inevitable. In some shape or form, the governments of the world must learn to accommodate them. Indeed, just last month, the Bank of Canada said a Canadian digital currency might be back on the table.

Like bitcoin, Angels bitdollar would run across a vast network of computers, and it would use a public ledger akin to bitcoins blockchainmeaning all transactions would be recorded online for all the see. But it would differ from bitcoin in how it encourages people to set up the machines needed to run this massive system. Rather than just paying them in newly minted bitdollars, it would give them a small cut of every transaction that happens on the network. And it would be backed by the greenback, which would eliminate some of the seesaw volatility that has spooked some would-be bitcoin users.

These arent huge changes. But the very idea of a government-backed digital currency is sure to horrify the bitcoin faithful. One of bitcoins central premises is that its a deflationary currencyonly about 21 million bitcoins will ever be createdand Angels Fed-backed bitdollar wouldnt have the same kind of restriction. One of the most important characteristics of bitcoin is the limited supply, says Roger Ver, a well-known bitcoin entrepreneur and evangelist. If the supply is unlimited, it isnt nearly as interesting.

One of the most important characteristics of bitcoin is the limited supply.

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Instead of Fighting Bitcoin, the US Could Make Its Own Digital Currency