''Winston v. Lee'', 470 U.S. 753 (1985), was a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which held that a compelled surgical intrusion into an individual's body for evidence implicates expectations of privacy and security of such magnitude that the intrusion would be "unreasonable" under the Fourth Amendment, even if likely to produce evidence of a crime. The reasonableness of surgical intrusions beneath the skin depends on a case-by-case approach, in which the individual's interests in privacy and security are weighed against society's interests in conducting the procedure to obtain evidence for fairly determining guilt or innocence. The appropriate framework of analysis for such cases is provided in '' Schmerber v. California'' (1966), which held that a State may, over the suspect's protest, have a physician extract blood from a person suspected of

drunken driving Drunk driving (or drink-driving in British English) is the act of driving under the influence of alcohol. A small increase in the blood alcohol content increases the relative risk of a motor vehicle crash. In the United States, alcohol is i ...

without violating the suspect's Fourth Amendment rights.

Background

A shopkeeper, Ralph WatkinsonWinston v. Lee @oyez.org
Retrieved November 22, 2020. was wounded by gunshot during an attempted robbery but, also being armed with a gun, apparently wounded his assailant in his left side, and the assailant then ran from the scene. Shortly after Watkinson was taken to a hospital, police officers found Rudolph Lee, who was suffering from a gunshot wound to his left chest area, eight blocks away from the shooting. He was also taken to the hospital, where Watkinson identified him as the robber. After an investigation, the police charged Lee with, '' inter alia'', attempted robbery, and malicious wounding. Thereafter, the

Commonwealth of Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...

moved in state court for an order directing Lee to undergo surgery to remove a bullet lodged under his left collarbone, asserting that the bullet would provide evidence of Lee's guilt or innocence. However, Lee expressed resistance toward this procedure. On the basis of expert testimony that the surgery would require an incision of only about one-half inch, could be performed under local anesthesia, and would result in "no danger on the basis that there's no general anesthesia employed," the court granted that the surgery could proceed, and the

Virginia Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Virginia is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It primarily hears direct appeals in civil cases from the trial-level city and county circuit courts, as well as the criminal law, family law and administrativ ...

denied Lee's petition for a

writ In common law, a writ (Anglo-Saxon ''gewrit'', Latin ''breve'') is a formal written order issued by a body with administrative or judicial jurisdiction; in modern usage, this body is generally a court. Warrants, prerogative writs, subpoenas, a ...

of prohibition and/or a writ of ''

habeas corpus ''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...

''. Lee subsequently brought an action in

Federal District Court The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district, which each cover one U.S. state or, in some cases, a portion of a state. Each district cou ...

to prevent the pending operation, claiming that it constituted an "illegal search" on Fourth Amendment grounds, but the court refused to issue a preliminary injunction. Shortly thereafter,

X-rays An X-ray, or, much less commonly, X-radiation, is a penetrating form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 10 picometers to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30&nbs ...

taken just before surgery was scheduled to begin showed that the bullet was lodged substantially deeper than had been thought when the state court initially granted the motion to compel surgery, and the surgeon concluded that a general anesthetic would be desirable. Armed with this information, Lee unsuccessfully sought a rehearing in the state trial court, and the Virginia Supreme Court affirmed. However, Lee then returned to the Federal District Court, which, after an evidentiary hearing, ruled against enforcing the surgery, a ruling which the

Court of Appeals A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of ...

affirmed.

Opinion of the Court

The Supreme Court, was unanimous in determining that, in the absence of any potentially substantial evidentiary gains from performing such an operation, the surgery did indeed constitute an "unreasonable search" under the Fourth Amendment. According to the opinion authored by William J. Brennan Jr., since the Commonwealth of Virginia could not produce a compelling argument that recovering the bullet from Lee would provide significant evidence in the case, the surgery was unconstitutional. However, Chief Justice

Warren E. Burger Warren Earl Burger (September 17, 1907 – June 25, 1995) was an American attorney and jurist who served as the 15th chief justice of the United States from 1969 to 1986. Born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Burger graduated from the St. Paul Colleg ...

wrote in his concurring opinion that this motion did not necessarily preclude officers from detaining an individual whose body/presence could naturally provide evidence in a case.

References

External links

*{{caselaw source , case =''Winston v. Lee'', {{ussc, 470, 753, 1985, el=no , courtlistener =https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/111380/winston-v-lee/ , findlaw =https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/470/753.html , googlescholar = https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=6619239343305962305 , justia =https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/470/753/case.html , loc =http://cdn.loc.gov/service/ll/usrep/usrep470/usrep470753/usrep470753.pdf , oyez =https://www.oyez.org/cases/1984/83-1334 United States Supreme Court cases United States Supreme Court cases of the Burger Court United States Fourth Amendment case law 1985 in United States case law

Background

Opinion of the Court

See also

References

Further reading

External links