Earl Warren

Miranda v. Arizona, with a majority opinion written by Chief Justice Earl Warren, was announced on June 13, 1966. Miranda is a major landmark in the Supreme Court’s expansion of rights of the accused. The decision reversed criminal convictions and threw out statements made by the defendant while in police custody. The accused, the Court wrote, had not been apprised of his right not to incriminate himself or of his right to consult an attorney and have one present during interrogation. This violation of constitutional rights made inadmissible his confession to the police, the major piece of evidence upon which the state relied for his conviction.

The impact of Miranda v. Arizona, measured purely as a legal standard, began to dissipate shortly after it was handed down. Congress announced its displeasure with the Miranda rules in the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968. As led by Chief Justice Warren Burger from 1969 to 1986, the Supreme Court never overruled Miranda but instead chipped away at it by developing, in cases where defendants claimed a Miranda violation, exceptions to the requirement that the warnings always be given. Nonetheless, the general impact of the case cannot be denied. Police departments incorporate the Miranda rules into their training and practices, sometimes printing the Miranda rights on cards for officers to hand to suspects. Americans are likely more familiar with the particulars of the holding in this case than in any other ever heard by the Supreme Court, for the Miranda warnings are common parlance on television and in crime fiction. Thus, the clamor trailing this case through American culture more than a half century after its disposition has instructed people, in a simplified manner, about important constitutional rights.

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For immediate download: Expert analysis of the case by Randy Wagner