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74 Tul. L. Rev. 1409 (1999-2000)
With an Evil Eye and an Unequal Hand: Pretextual Stops and Doctrinal Remedies to Racial Profiling

handle is hein.journals/tulr74 and id is 1437 raw text is: With an Evil Eye and an Unequal Hand: Pretextual Stops and Doctrinal Remedies to Racial Profiling Wesley MacNeil Oliver* The United States Department ofJustice recently entered into a consent decree with the New Jersey State Police to bring an end to racial profiling. The decree requires the state police to develop a race-neutral protocol to determine how traffic offenders are to be selected from the universe ofpetty perpetrators and to warn motorists of their right to decline an officer s request to search their automobiles. This Article demonstrates that the terms of the consent decree are compelled by the Fourth Amendment and failure to comply with these terms should result in suppression of any evidence so seized. To provide a lesser remedy would be to relegate racial profiling to a less significant violation ofones security in his person, house, papers, or effects. I. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................... 1410 II. THEPROBLEM ........................................................................... 1416 A. Anatomy of a Traffic Stop ................................................ 1416 B. With an Unequal Hand .................................................... 1422 Ill. THE CONSTITUTION ................................................................... 1425 A. The Aristocratic Vision: The Judiciary as Guardian of the Fourth Amendment& Original Limitations .......... 1425 B. The Democratic Vision: The People as Interpreters of the Fourth Amendment Reasonableness Requirement ..................................................................... 1429 IV. THE REMEDY ............................................................................. 1436 A. Constitutionally Compelled Limitations on Officer A uthority ........................................................................... 1436 1. Limits on the Power to Select Among Offenders ................................................................. 1438 a. Roadblocks Versus Random Stops ............. 1440 b. Inventory Searches ..................................... 1443 c. Regulatory Searches ................................... 1447 d. Traffic Stops ............................................... 1449 * Forrester Teaching Fellow, Tulane University School of Law. B.A., J.D., University of Virginia. My thanks to Don Hall, my mentor and friend, who patiently and enthusiastically guided me through this project; Catherine Hancock and Jancy Hoeffel, two of my brilliant colleagues who indulged my endless discussions about Fourth Amendment doctrines; E.E. Edwards, IH, with whom I developed the idea for this Article and from whom I learned how Fourth Amendment claims ought to be litigated; and Welford Macon Durrer, my grandfather, who taught me the value of honesty, integrity, and determination. 1409

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