Case Citator › Burdeau v. McDowell

Burdeau v. McDowell

Is it still good law? What later courts have actually done to this case.

Questioned by some courts
Court
Supreme Court of the United States
Citation
256 U.S. 465
Decided
Confirmed treatments
1
Flagged citations read
45 of 45
Citing cases (total)
45
Treatment dates
1974
Questioned by some courts
At least one reviewed court has questioned this case’s reasoning or continued validity. No reviewed court has overruled it. Burdeau v. McDowell was questioned in one federal district court ruling about stolen documents in civil discovery. All 45 flagged citations have been read; that ruling is listed below.
More on how this was screened

Other citing courts continued to apply Burdeau's rule that the Fourth Amendment does not restrict independent private searches.

Every treatment on this page is written from the citing opinion itself, with a verbatim quote, never copied from a commercial citator. A citation flagged by our screen but not shown here was read and found not to weaken this case.

45 later cases cite Burdeau v. McDowell; 45 of those citations sat close to treatment language and were flagged for reading, and all of them have been read. Citations that did not sit near treatment language were not flagged and were not read one by one, so a court that weakened this case without using any of that language would not appear here.

Relying on Burdeau v. McDowell?

This page shows what later courts did to it. Ask about your specific facts and see whether it still carries your argument, with citations you can check.

Treatments

Questioned

  • The district court questioned Burdeau when it upheld the FBI's objection to authenticating documents stolen from its offices for use in a civil rights action.

    Kenyatta v. Kelly · United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania · filed

    I question the validity of the Burdeau case in the light of the law’s developments over the last 53 years and decline to follow it.
    Read the full opinion on CourtListener →

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