Heien v. North Carolina

Heien v. North Carolina was argued on October 6, 2014 and decided on December 15, 2014.

This case is about what happens when a police officer mistakenly pulls a car over and discovers drugs in the car. Should the evidence be used against the accused at trial, or excluded from trial because of the officer’s mistake?

Case Summary

• Heien v. North Carolina (Note: you will be prompted to create a Street Law store web account in order to download this free case summary). 

Case Briefs

• Petitioner (Heien)
• Respondent (North Carolina)
• Petitioner reply

Amici

Both the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the Rutherford Institute filed amicus briefs in this case. You could assign some students to research those groups’ interests and prepare a brief for the Court from one interest group’s perspective. These groups’ briefs are available on SCOTUSblog’s case page.

Oral Argument

• Listen to an audio recording of the oral argument.
• Read a transcript of the oral argument.
• Read SCOTUSblog's analysis of the argument.

Decision

• Full text of the Supreme Court's decision
• Street Law's summary of the decision

Legal/Content Background

Heien v. North Carolina is a Fourth Amendment case. It provides a venue for exploring Americans’ rights when it comes to vehicle stops and searches, and a way to teach about the exclusionary rule. Mapp v. Ohio, which established the exclusionary rule, is a good background case to teach first.

LandmarkCases.org

• Mapp v. Ohio (1961)

Fourth Amendment Vehicle Cases

(Note: you will be prompted to create a Street Law store web account in order to download these free case summaries.) 

• Arizona v. Gant (2009)
• Brendlin v. California (2007)
• Illinois v. Caballes(2005)
• Scott v. Harris (2007)
• Thornton v. U.S.(2004)
• Wyoming v. Houghton (1999)