No area of constitutional decision making has generated more difficult
decisions for the Court than the area of search and seizure. As the
many people who watched O.J. Simpson's preliminary hearing on
television in the summer of 1994 learned, search and seizure decisions can be
complex and controversial. With decisions that require the Court to balance
the rights of citizens to be free from invasions of privacy against the need of
law enforcement to catch and prosecute criminals, the Supreme Court has
been called upon to state the rules that control how police and other officials
at every level of government must act. Issues such as when to invoke the
exclusionary rule have kept the Supreme Court busy over the course of many
decades.

While this volume is written for everyone, every effort has been made to
make the discussion interesting and accessible to high school and under-
graduate college students. Issues and Supreme Court decisions have been
chosen with an eye to what students might find interesting. Cases involving
schools have been included whenever appropriate.

This volume is intended to be useful both as a reference work and as a
supplement to the standard textbook in social studies, history, government,
political science, and law courses. The Supreme Court decisions reprinted
here were chosen because of their importance and the likelihood that they
would stimulate discussion about the issues presented in this volume. Teach-
ers should consider having students read only the actual Court decisions in
preparation for class discussion, and then having students read the discussion
material following the class discussion.

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