Is Ignorance of the Law an Excuse for the Police to Violate the Fourth Amendment?
“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
The old saying “Ignorance of the law is no excuse,” is not merely a tired cliché, but is an ensconced principle of criminal law. As Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes put it, “To admit the excuse at all would be to encourage ignorance where the law-maker has determined to make men know and obey.” In modern times, the United States Supreme Court has recognized that the principle is “deeply rooted in the American legal system” and has rejected citizens’ claims of ignorance of the law as a defense to criminal prosecutions. While it is clear that citizen errors regarding the demands of the criminal law will not excuse criminal liability, what is not so clear is whether law enforcement are held to the same standard. If a police officer, invades the rights of a citizen due to a reasonable misapprehension of the law, should the officer be excused from the consequences of that error?
