Which term refers to a doctrine that historically allowed federal courts to admit illegally obtained state evidence?

• A. Plain View Evidence
• B. Silver Platter Doctrine
• C. Stop and Frisk
• D. Showup

Answer: (B)

The principle here is a historical exception to the exclusionary rule, used when state officials gathered evidence illegally but federal prosecutors and courts still admitted it because federal authorities were not involved in the unlawful conduct. This was the Silver Platter Doctrine, so named because state-obtained evidence was “presented on a silver platter” to federal prosecutors for use in federal cases, effectively bypassing suppression at the federal level at that time. It existed in a period when the federal government did not automatically honor a state’s illegal collection of evidence, but it was later overturned as the Supreme Court extended the exclusionary rule to the states, making such evidence inadmissible in both federal and state courts. So the term described here is the Silver Platter Doctrine.

Other options refer to different police or evidentiary concepts: Plain View involves evidence found in plain sight during lawful activity; Stop and Frisk covers when officers can stop and frisk someone; Showup relates to a quick identification procedure. None of these address the historical practice of admitting illegally obtained state evidence in federal court.