POLS 4720 Lecture 7: 7
5 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
When looking at the important precedent, Coolidge v New Hampshire1 which held a
car search on private property unconstitutional, it is difficult to determine what Justice
Thomas would have said in 1971 because he was not a justice at that time. However, by
looking at the decisions of the conservative justices on the court at the time of the case, we
can also deduct what Justice Thomas would have voted. At the time of Coolidge v.
Hampshire, Justice Marshall Harlan was a conservative icon of the Supreme Court who, like
Justice Thomas, practiced judicial restraint and judicial activism. Justice Harlan concurred
with the Supreme Court in that the private property search was unconstitutional. He states that
there is confusion that the police may enter a man’s property to arrest him and seize a vehicle
and that needs to be cleared. Seeing this, it would be fair to assume that under the same belief
of conservatism and judicial restraint, Justice Thomas would also declare the entrance of
private property is unconstitutional.
By also looking at how Justice Thomas ruled in other Fourth Amendment cases can also
determine how his beliefs would lead him to decide in Collins v. Virginia. In the knock and
announce case of Wilson v. Arkansas2, Justice Thomas looked to the traditional protections
against unreasonable searches and seizures that the common law stated and meant at the time
of the framing. He states that the common law protected a man’s house as “his castle of
defense and asylum”. Because the driveway is part of the curtilage of the house, the common
law would have declared the entrance into the driveway as a violation to the Fourth
Amendment. Justice Thomas has articulated a clear and consistent jurisprudence of
constitutional restoration that seeks to restore the original general meaning of the Constitution.
During his many years on the Court, he has pursued an original approach to the interpretation of
1 “Coolidge v. New Hampshire.” Oyez. Accessed 5, 2018, www.oyez.org/cases/1970/323.
2 Wilson . Arkansas. Oyez. Accessed April , , .oyez.org/cases//-5707.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
