Opinion · Supreme Court of the United States

Rochin v. California

Rochin v. Cal., 342 U.S. 165 (1952)

Type
Opinion
Court
Supreme Court of the United States
Jurisdiction
Federal
Date
1952-01-02
Topic
general

How later courts describe this case

  • holding that the forcible pumping of suspect's stomach violated due process clause of the fourteenth amendment because it "shocks the conscience"
  • holding that the forcible extraction of suspect's stomach contents through induced vomiting violated the Due Process Clause
  • concluding that the forcible extraction of morphine capsules to secure conviction violated procedural due process
  • concluding that forcibly pumping a suspect's stomach "shocks the conscience" and "offends a sense of justice" thereby violating the Due Process Clause
  • concluding that pumping the stomach of a suspect in the search for evidence "shocks the conscience"
  • holding that the forcible pumping of a suspect’s stomach to obtain evidence to be used against him was “too close to the rack and the screw to permit of constitutional differentiation”
  • holding that the involuntary pumping of an individual’s stomach to obtain evidence shocks the conscience
  • holding that the forced pumping of a suspect’s stomach to verify whether the suspect had used drugs “shocks the conscience”

Citator

Rochin v. California has been questioned or limited by later authorities: relies on overruled authority: 67 S. Ct. 1672 (overruled by Malloy v. Hogan). Read them before relying on it. 3,272 later decisions cite it.

Authority status
caution
Cited by
3272 opinions

Headnotes

  1. Constitutional Law — Due Process The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment imposes limitations on the manner in which the States may enforce their penal codes, and in reviewing a state criminal conviction under a claim of right guaranteed by that Clause, a court must be mindful of the States' responsibility for enforcing criminal laws while exercising judgment as to whether the proceedings offend those canons of decency and fairness which express the notions of justice of English-speaking peoples. 342 U.S. at 168–169
  2. Constitutional Law — Due Process Due process of law is a summarized constitutional guarantee of respect for those personal immunities which are so rooted in the traditions and conscience of the people as to be ranked as fundamental, or are implicit in the concept of ordered liberty. 342 U.S. at 169
  3. Constitutional Law — Due Process Although the contours of the Due Process Clause are indefinite, judges may not draw on merely personal and private notions in applying it; the limits on judgment are derived from considerations deeply rooted in reason and in the compelling traditions of the legal profession, and due process requires an evaluation based on a disinterested inquiry, a balanced order of facts exactly and fairly stated, and detached consideration of conflicting claims. 342 U.S. at 170–171
  4. Constitutional Law — Due Process A state criminal conviction obtained by methods that shock the conscience or offend a sense of justice violates the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, and the forcible extraction of evidence from a suspect's body through stomach pumping is conduct that shocks the conscience and is too close to the rack and the screw to permit of constitutional differentiation. 342 U.S. at 172
  5. Constitutional Law — Admissibility of Evidence Due process of law precludes defining, and thereby confining, the standards of conduct for obtaining evidence more precisely than to say that convictions cannot be brought about by methods that offend a sense of justice; it would be a stultification of constitutional responsibility to hold that police cannot extract by force what is in a man's mind but can extract what is in his stomach. 342 U.S. at 173
  6. Constitutional Law — Coerced Confessions and Real Evidence The distinction between real evidence and verbal evidence ignores the reasons for excluding coerced confessions; involuntary verbal confessions are constitutionally obnoxious not only because of their unreliability, but because they offend the community's sense of fair play and decency, and coerced confessions are inadmissible under the Due Process Clause even though the statements contained in them may be independently established as true. 342 U.S. at 173
  7. Constitutional Law — Due Process To sanction brutal conduct by government agents in obtaining evidence from a suspect would be to afford brutality the cloak of law and would discredit law and brutalize the temper of society. 342 U.S. at 173–174