Kit Kinports

Distinguished Professor of Law, Emerita

Education

J.D., University of Pennsylvania
A.B., Brown University

Biography

Professor Kinports is a leading scholar of feminist jurisprudence, criminal law and federalism, and an award-winning classroom teacher. Professor Kinports is a former clerk for Judge Abner Mikva of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and Justice Harry Blackmun of the U.S. Supreme Court. Before entering the teaching profession, she practiced law with Ennis, Friedman, Bersoff & Ewing in Washington, D.C. for several years.

Her recent work includes the following: McCormick on Evidence (8th edition Supp. 2022) (with Robert P. Mosteller et al.); “Pretrial Custody and Miranda,” published in the Washington & Lee Law Review; “Questions for The Questionable Objectivity of Fourth Amendment Law,” an invited response to an Orin Kerr article published in the Texas Law Review Online; “The Origins and Legacy of the Fourth Amendment Reasonableness Balancing Model,” which appeared in the Case Western Reserve Law Review; “The Quantum of Suspicion Needed for an Exigent Circumstances Search,” published in the University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform; “Illegal Predicate Searches and Tainted Warrants After Heien and Strieff,” which appeared in the Tulane Law Review; “Heien’s Mistake of Law,” published in the Alabama Law Review; and the fourth edition of her co-authored Criminal Law casebook.

Professor Kinports is currently working on the ninth edition of McCormick on Evidence, updating the chapters on the privilege against self-incrimination, confessions, and the exclusionary rule.

__, Saltzburg Stephen A., Diamond John L., Morawetz Thomas H., & Little Rory K., Criminal Law: Cases and Materials (4th ed. Supp. 2024).

__ & Mark R. Brown, Constitutional Litigation Under Section 1983 (3d ed. Supp. 2024).

McCormick on Evidence (8th edition Supp. 2022) (with Robert P. Mosteller et al.)

“Pretrial Custody and Miranda,” 78 Washington & Lee Law Review 725 (2021)

“Questions for The Questionable Objectivity of Fourth Amendment Law,” 99 Texas Law Review Online 142 (2021) (invited response to Orin Kerr article)

“The Origins and Legacy of the Fourth Amendment Reasonableness Balancing Model,” 70 Case Western Reserve Law Review 157 (2020)

“The Quantum of Suspicion Needed for an Exigent Circumstances Search,” 52 U. Mich. J.L. Reform 616 (2019)

“Illegal Predicate Searches and Tainted Warrants After Heien and Strieff,” 92 Tul. L. Rev. 837 (2018)

Criminal Law: Cases and Materials (with Stephen A. Saltzburg et al., 4th ed. 2017)

“Heien’s Mistake of Law,” 68 Ala. L. Rev. 121 (2016)

“What Does Edwards Ban?: Interrogating, Badgering, or Initiating Contact?,” 43 N. Ky. L. Rev. 359 (2017)

“The Supreme Court’s Quiet Expansion of the Qualified Immunity Defense,” 100 Minn. L. Rev. Headnotes 62 (2016)

“The Myth of Battered Woman Syndrome,” 24 Temple Pol. & Civ. Rts. L. Rev. 313 (2015)

“Rosemond, Mens Rea, and the Elements of Complicity,” 52 San Diego L. Rev. 133 (2015)

“Probable Cause and Reasonable Suspicion: Totality Tests or Rigid Rules?,” 163 U. Pa. L. Rev. Online 75 (2014)

Constitutional Litigation Under Section 1983 (with Mark Brown, 3d ed. 2014)

“The Dog Days of Fourth Amendment Jurisprudence,” 108 Nw. U. L. Rev. Colloquy 64 (2013)

“Culpability, Deterrence, and the Exclusionary Rule,” 21 Wm. & Mary Bill Rts. J. 821 (2013)

“Feminist Prosecutors and Patriarchal States,” Crim. L. & Phil. (Dec. 2012)

“Camreta and al-Kidd: The Supreme Court, the Fourth Amendment, and Witnesses,” 102 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 283 (2012)

“The Supreme Court’s Love-Hate Relationship with Miranda,” 101 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 375 (2011)

“Iqbal and Supervisory Immunity,” 114 Penn St. L. Rev. 1291 (2010)

“Veteran Police Officers and Three-Dollar Steaks: The Subjective/Objective Dimensions of Probable Cause and Reasonable Suspicion,” 12 U. Pa. J. Const. L. 751 (2010)

“Diminishing Probable Cause and Minimalist Searches,” 6 Ohio St. J. Crim. L. 249 (2009)

“Criminal Procedure in Perspective,” 98 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 71 (2007)

March 2023

Penn State Law PILF hosts annual auction

January 2023

Professor Kinports joins Professor Kaye as co-author of McCormick on Evidence

September 2022

Penn State Law mourns the passing of Christopher C. French

Kit Kinports

Education

Biography

Legal Statements