Levin College of Law
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Tracey Maclin

Raymond & Miriam Ehrlich Chair in U.S. Constitutional Law

Expertise

Constitutional Criminal Procedure  • Constitutional Law  • U.S. Supreme Court  • 

About

Tracey Maclin is Professor of Law and Raymond & Miriam Ehrlich Eminent Scholar Chair. Prior to joining the University of Florida faculty, he was a professor of law and Joseph Lipsitt Faculty Research Scholar at Boston University School of Law. He has also taught at Cornell Law School, Harvard Law School and the University of Kentucky College of Law. Before entering law teaching, Professor Maclin served as a law clerk to Judge Boyce F. Martin, Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and worked at Cahill, Gordon & Reindel.

Professor Maclin teaches courses in Constitutional Law, Constitutional Criminal Procedure, and the Fifth Amendment’s Self-Incrimination Clause . He also teaches a seminar on the Supreme Court’s cases in criminal procedure, criminal law, habeas corpus and the death penalty. His scholarship focuses on the Fourth Amendment and the Self-Incrimination Clause of the Fifth Amendment. He has published many law review articles and book chapters on constitutional criminal procedure topics. He is the author of The Supreme Court and the Fourth Amendment’s Exclusionary Rule (Oxford University Press 2013). In addition to his legal scholarship, Professor Maclin has authored over a dozen amicus curiae briefs and served as counsel of record for the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the Cato Institute in Fourth Amendment cases in the United States Supreme Court.

Education 

J.D., Columbia Law School
B.A., Tufts University

Courses

  • Constitutional Law
  • Constitutional Criminal Procedure
  • Seminar on the Supreme Court
  • Fifth Amendment’s Self-Incrimination Clause

Publications

Book

  • The Supreme Court and the Fourth Amendment’s Exclusionary Rule (Oxford University Press, 2012)

Articles and Book Chapters

  • Is Silence Golden? __ Arizona Law Review ___ (2023) (forthcoming)
  • Long Overdue: Fifth Amendment Protection for Corporate Officers, 101 Boston University Law Review 1523 (2021)
  • Cops and Cars: How the Automobile Drove Fourth Amendment Law, 99 Boston University Law Review 2317 (2019)
  • Byrd v. United States: Unauthorized Drivers of Rental Cars Have Fourth Amendment Rights? Not as Evident as it Seems, 2018 Supreme Court Review 81
  • Martin Luther King Jr. and Pretext Stops (and Arrests): Reflections on How Far We Have Not Come Fifty Years Later, 49 University of Memphis Law Review 43 (2018) (with Maria Savarese) (“MLK 50: Where Do We Go From Here?” Symposium on the Fiftieth Anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr’s assassination) (Invited Author)
  • The Prophylactic Fifth Amendment, 97 Boston University Law Review 1047 (2017) (Symposium on the Fiftieth Anniversary of Miranda v. Arizona) (Organizer of the Symposium)
  • The Right to Silence v. The Fifth Amendment, 2016 University of Chicago Legal Forum 255 (2016) (Symposium on Policing the Police) (Invited Author)
  • The Good and Bad in Rodriguez v. United States, 100 Minnesota Law Review 1939 (2016) (Symposium Celebrating One Hundred Volumes of the Minnesota Law Review) (Invited Author)
  • Government Analysis of Shed DNA is a Search Under the Fourth Amendment, 48 Texas Tech Law Review 287 (2015) (Symposium on the Fourth Amendment in the Twenty-First Century) (Invited Author)
  • A Comprehensive Analysis of the History of Interrogation Law, with Some Shots Directed at Miranda v. Arizona, 95 Boston University Law Review 1387 (2015)
  • Maryland v. King: Terry v. Ohio Redux, 2013 Supreme Court Review 359
  • No More Chipping Away: The Roberts Court Uses an Axe to Take Out the Fourth Amendment Exclusionary Rule, 81 Mississippi Law Journal 1183 (2012) (with Jennifer Rader) (Invited Author)
  • Framing the Fourth, 109 Michigan Law Review 1049 (2011) (with Julia Mirabella)
  • James Otis, (1725-1783) in The Yale Biographical Dictionary of American Law  (Roger K. Newman ed. 2009)
  • Whren v. United States: The Fourth Amendment Problem With Pretextual Traffic Stops, in We Dissent (NYU Press) (Michael Avery ed., 2009)
  • The Good and Bad News About Consent Searches in the Supreme Court, 39 McGeorge Law Review (Distinguished Speaker) 39 McGeorge Law Review 27 (2008)
  • The Bush Administration’s Terrorist Surveillance Program and the Fourth Amendment’s Warrant Requirement: Lessons from Justice Powell and the Keith Case, 41 University of California at Davis Law Review (Symposium Volume: Katz v. United States 40 Years Later: From Warrantless Wiretaps to the War on Terror) 41 University of California at Davis Law Review 1259 (2008) (Invited Author).
  • Police Interrogation During Traffic Stops: More Questions Than Answers, The Champion 34 (November 2007)
  • Secret Agents in Private Spaces: The Story of Hoffa v. United States, in Criminal Procedure Stories (Carol S. Steiker ed., 2006)
  • Is Obtaining An Arrestee’s DNA a Valid Special Needs Search Under the Fourth Amendment? What Will the Supreme Court Do?  33:1 Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 102 (2005) (Refereed Journal) (Invited Author)
  • A Criminal Procedure Regime Based On Instrumental Values, 22 Constitutional Commentary 197 (2005).
  • A Review of About Guilt and Innocence: The Origins, Development, and Future of Constitutional Criminal Procedure, By Donald A. Dripps (2003)
  • The Pringle Case’s New Notion of Probable Cause: An Assault on Di Re and the Fourth Amendment, 2003-2004 Cato Supreme Court Review 395
  • Is Yale Kamisar as Good as Joe Namath?: A Look Back at Kamisar’s “Prediction” of Miranda v. Arizona, 2 Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law 33 (2004) (Tribute to Professor Yale Kamisar) (Invited Author)
  • “Voluntary” Interviews and Airport Seizures of Middle Eastern Men: The Fourth Amendment in a Time of Terror, 73 Mississippi Law Journal 471 (2003) (Symposium Volume: The Permissibility of Race or Ethnicity as a Factor in Assessing the Reasonableness of a Search or Seizure) (Invited Author)
  • Wiretapping and Eavesdropping, in 4 Encyclopedia of Crime and Justice 1677 (Joshua Dressler ed., 2002)
  • Katz, Kyllo and Technology:  Virtual Fourth Amendment Protection in the Twenty-First Century, 72 Mississippi Law Journal 51 (2002) (Symposium Volume:  The Effect of Technology on Fourth Amendment Analysis and Individual Rights) (Invited Author)
  • Let Sleeping Dogs Lie: Why the Supreme Court Should Leave Fourth Amendment History Unabridged, 82 Boston University Law Review 895 (2002)
  • The Fourth Amendment on the Freeway, 3 Rutgers Race and the Law Review 117 (2001) (Symposium Volume) (Invited author)
  • What Can Fourth Amendment Doctrine Learn From Vagueness Doctrine?, 3 University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law 398 (2001) (Symposium 2000: Race, Crime and the Constitution) (Invited Author)
  • Drug Testing: The Fourth Amendment, in The Constitution and its Amendments (Roger K. Newman, ed., 1999)
  • Terry v. Ohio’s Fourth Amendment Legacy: Black Men and Police Discretion,  72 St. John’s Law Review 1271 (1998) (Symposium Volume on the Thirtieth Anniversary of Terry v. Ohio) (Invited Author)
  • Race and the Fourth Amendment, 51 Vanderbilt Law Review 333 (1998)
    • Excerpted in Critical Race Theory: Cases, Materials, and Problems (Dorothy A. Brown ed. 2003)
  • The Complexity of the Fourth Amendment: A Historical Review, 77 Boston University Law Review 925 (1997)
  • Informants and The Fourth Amendment: A Reconsideration, 74 Washington University Law Quarterly 1 (1996)
  • When the Cure For The Fourth Amendment is Worse Than the Disease, 68 Southern California Law Review 1 (1994)
    • Excerpted in A Criminal Procedure Anthology (Wasserstrom & Snyder ed. 1996)
  • The Central Meaning of the Fourth Amendment, 35 William & Mary Law Review 197 (1993)
  • Justice Thurgood Marshall: Taking the Fourth Amendment Seriously, 77 Cornell Law Review 723 (1992)
  • “Black and Blue Encounters” – Some Preliminary Thoughts About Fourth Amendment Seizures: Should Race Matter?  26 Valparaiso Univ. Law Review 243 (1991) (Symposium Volume on Bicentennial of the Bill of Rights) (Invited Author)
    • Excerpted in Modern Criminal Procedure: Cases – Comments – Questions (Kamisar, LaFave, Israel & King, 11th ed. 2005)
    • Excerpted in A Criminal Procedure Anthology (Wasserstrom & Snyder ed. 1996)
  • The Decline of the Right of Locomotion: The Fourth Amendment on the Streets, 75 Cornell Law Review 1258 (1990)
    • Reprinted in 1991 Criminal Law Review
  • Seeing the Constitution From the Backseat of a Police Squad Car: An Essay on Tempered Zeal by H. Richard Uviller, 70 Boston University Law Review 543 (1990)
    • Excerpted in A Criminal Procedure Anthology (Wasserstrom & Snyder ed. 1996)
  • Constructing Fourth Amendment Principles From the Government Perspective: Whose Amendment Is It, Anyway? 25 American Criminal Law Review 699 (1988)
  • New York v. Class: A Little-Noticed Case With Disturbing Implications, 78 Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 1 (1987)

Other Publications

  • Amending the Fourth: Another Grave Threat to Liberty, National Law Journal (November 12, 2001)
  • Open Door Policy: Court Rulings on Traffic Stops Undercut Fourth Amendment Protections, ABA Journal, (July, 1997)
  • Can a Traffic Offense Be D.W.B. (Driving While Black)?, Los Angeles Times, (March 9, 1997)
  • Court Is Off Base on Student Drug Tests, Newsday (New York) (Aug. 8, 1995)
  • Public Housing Searches Ignore the Constitution, Christian Science Monitor (May 24, 1994)
  • Warrantless Sweeps are an Erosion of Freedom, Houston Chronicle (April 22, 1994)
  • Black and Blue: African-Americans and Police, Reconstruction, Vol. 2, No. 1 (1992)
  • They Weren’t True Blue, New York Newsday (Oct. 7, 1992)
  • The Right To Be Left Alone, AALS Criminal Justice Section Newsletter (December, 1990)
  • The Fourth Amendment is Under Attack—Does Anybody Care?  17 Cornell Law Forum 7 (1990)
  • Fourth Amendment Attack, Syracuse Post-Standard (Jan. 3, 1990)
  • Innocent People Being Hurt by Anger, Frustration, Charlestown Gazette (West Virginia) (December 27, 1989)

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The Florida Constitutional Law Endowment in memory of Justice Ben F. Overton was created by Judge Karen Miller in 2013. This fund supports lectures and presentations by Justices of the Florida Supreme Court at the Fredric G. Levin College of Law.

HISTORY

Justice Overton, who earned his B.S. in 1951 and his Juris Doctor in 1952 from the University of Florida, was the first merit appointment to the Florida Supreme Court. Throughout his career he was active in legal education and served as an Adjunct Professor at the Levin College of Law through December 2012, the month of his death. Although he resided at Oak Hammock at the University of Florida, a continuing care retirement community developed in cooperation with UF, he also considered the Florida Supreme Court “home.” Among the high points of his later years was hosting Justices of the Florida Supreme Court in Gainesville and taking his class to Tallahassee to hear oral arguments at the Florida Supreme Court.
Judge Miller, who earned her B.S. cum laude from New York University in 1974 and her Juris Doctor from New York Law School in 1977, served as Chief Administrative Law Judge of the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs, New York City’s business regulatory agency, before she retired to Oak Hammock at the University of Florida. Having accompanied Justice Overton on his excursions to Tallahassee and joined him in welcoming guests to Oak Hammock at the University of Florida, she created the endowment in memory of Justice Overton to ensure that the Levin College of Law continues to have the funding necessary to continue and enhance the interaction between its students and the Florida Supreme Court.

 

Judge Miller remembered the event that motivated the endowment.

 

Prior to a dinner at the home of Dean Robert Jerry and Lisa Jerry shortly after Justice Overton’s death, Justice Barbara Pariente and I were discussing a suitable memorial. Justice Pariente, who had been Justice Overton’s colleague on the Florida Supreme Court and who understood the importance to him of the interaction between his students and the Court, suggested the outline of what has become the Overton lectures. Dean Jerry, who has since retired, as has Dean Emeritus Jon Mills, who assumed responsibility for implementing the Overton lectures, were very supportive from the beginning. Since Dean Mills’ retirement, Professor Timothy McClendon, who assisted both Justice Overton and Dean Mills teaching Florida Constitutional Law and who co-authored the recent Florida Constitutional Law casebook, has continued the Overton lectures with the support of Interim Dean Merritt McAlister and CGR director, Professor Danaya Wright.

Justice Overton was a devoted jurist, educator, and ethical leader of the Florida legal profession. The Overton Lecture Series brings Florida Supreme Court Justices to the University of Florida, Levin College of Law, and serves to introduce students to the inner workings of the Court. CGR and the students of the College of Law extend our deepest gratitude to Judge Karen Miller for making the Overton Lectures possible in perpetuity.

You can watch an interview for the Florida Historical Society by Mary Adkins, professor emeritus of the UF Levin College of Law, with Justice Overton here.

Justice Overton was also interviewed for the Samuel Proctor Oral History Project and a transcript of his interview is available at the Smathers Library, and here.
Justice Overton sat on the Constitution Revision Commission of 1977-78 that proposed a right to privacy in the Florida Constitution. Although it failed as part of the Constitution Revision Commission recommendations, it passed in 1980 when proposed by the legislature. The bill was co-sponsored by our very own Jon Mills. The privacy provision prevailed by greater than 60%. Justice Overton then wrote a concurrence in a critical reproductive rights case in 1989 affirming that the privacy provision of the Florida Constitution included the right to obtain an abortion. That decision was overruled in Planned Parenthood of SW and Central Florida v. Florida. You can read about the role of Justice Overton, Jon Mills – director emeritus of CGR, and the history of the 1989 case here.