TRIAL ADVOCACY TUESDAY TIPS AND TRICKS - Case #1 - Delaware v. Prouse

 Posted on September 23, 2025 in Legal

I am pleased to present the first installment of Trial Advocacy Tuesday, where we take a brief look at how to use the Fourth Amendment Friday Fundamentals cases from last week.

Here are three trial advocacy tips and tricks on how to make Delaware v. Prouse work for you and your clients in the courtroom:

Advocacy Tip #1:  Pre-Trial Motions to Suppress - Privacy Doesn’t End at the Curb

Your car isn’t a Constitutional black hole.  In Prouse, the Court stressed that citizens don’t shed their privacy rights when they leave their home and enter a vehicle.  Push back against the prosecutor narrative that the regulation of cars erases fundamental rights, and remind the trial court that anytime he or she gets in the car, "the Constitution rides shotgun."

Advocacy Tip #2:  Translate Balancing Doctrine Into a Human Story - Every Trial Needs a VILLAIN

The Court in Prouse weighed the intrusion of suspicionless stops against government interest and found the balance tipped in favor of individual liberty.  You can use this type of "test" to create your client’s story - describe the anxiety, the fear, the humiliation of being stopped on a whim, and remember that jurors respond to dignity and fairness.  Make the villain unchecked government power, the client is the ordinary motorist "damsel in distress" and the jury is the hero, waving a copy of the Bill of Rights as it delivers a Not Guilty verdict.

Advocacy Tip #3:  Frame Credibility Through Constitutional Values 

As noted above, jurors resonate with fairness.  Borrowing from the spirit of Prouse (protection against arbitrary intrusion), you can turn no observable driving cues into reasonable doubt. If the officer doesn’t see any swerving, drifting, crossing the lane divider lines, where is the objective evidence of impairment?  

Also, prosecutors LOVE to argue public safety so flip that.  Turn it into a defense theme that showcases the holding in Prouse:  We all want safe roads, but that doesn’t come from giving the police unchecked power and that is exactly why we have the system we have.  

Stay tuned for more Trial Advocacy Tuesday Tips and Tricks.