United States v. Peltier

In United States v. Peltier (1975) 422 U.S. 531, the court again refused to give retroactive effect to a new exclusionary rule announced in Almeida-Sanchez v. United States (1973) 413 U.S. 266, wherein the court held unlawful a search by border patrol agents of a vehicle 25 miles from the border without probable cause or a warrant. In so doing the court reviewed earlier cases concerning retroactivity of new exclusionary rules and stated: "The teaching of these retroactivity cases is that if the law enforcement officers reasonably believed in good faith that evidence they had seized was admissible at trial, the 'imperative of judicial integrity' is not offended by the introduction into evidence of that material even if decisions subsequent to the search or seizure have broadened the exclusionary rule to encompass evidence seized in that manner." ( United States v. Peltier, supra , 422 U.S. at p. 537.)