Charles E. Marquart, III - Page 6

                                                - 6 -                                                   

            returns.  The ensuing investigation led to the deficiency notices                           
            petitioner challenges in this proceeding.                                                   
                                             Discussion                                                 
                  Petitioner alleges that respondent calculated his tax                                 
            liability for the years in issue on the basis of documents seized                           
            from his residence by State police officers during an unlawful                              
            search.  He further contends that the search was such an                                    
            egregious violation of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution                             
            that the seized documents should be excluded from consideration                             
            in this proceeding.                                                                         
                  We begin by noting that the exclusionary rule is primarily a                          
            criminal law doctrine with limited application to civil                                     
            proceedings.  United States v. Janis, 428 U.S. 433 (1976).  In                              
            Janis, the Court described a balancing test for identifying the                             
            limited circumstances under which it would exclude unlawfully                               
            seized evidence from a civil judicial proceeding.  Briefly, the                             
            benefit to society of deterring police misconduct must outweigh                             
            the cost to society of forgoing relevant, probative evidence.                               
            Id. at 454.  This balancing test is derived from the purpose of                             
            the exclusionary rule, which, the Court pointed out, is to deter                            
            police misconduct.  The Court reasoned that in the absence of                               
            valid empirical studies to demonstrate the existence or strength                            
            of the deterrent effect of exclusion, courts are forced to assess                           
            the likelihood of deterrence under the circumstances of the case                            





Page:  Previous  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  Next

Last modified: May 25, 2011