PROFESSOR DONELSON PUBLISHES BLOG POST ON POLICE SEARCHES
May 2021 — Professor Raff Donelson published “Police, Privacy, and Searches” on The Blog of the APA. The blog post is available here.
The Blog of the APA (American Philosophical Association) features interviews of philosophy professors as well as commissioned blog posts on topical philosophical issues. Professor Donelson’s post brings the issue of Katz circularity to the philosophical community. Katz circularity is a well-known problem that stems from the United States Supreme Court’s failed efforts to define a “search” for Fourth Amendment purposes. In this post, Professor Donelson, drawing upon his recent scholarship, describes the problem and explains why this should be of broad interest in a time when society seeks police reform.
Professor Raff Donelson is an Associate Professor of Law at Penn State Dickinson Law who earned his J.D. and Ph.D. in Philosophy from Northwestern University. Professor Donelson’s research and teaching interests lie at the intersection of philosophy, constitutional law, and criminal law. His more theoretical research interests include metaethics and general jurisprudence, while his doctrinal work focuses on constitutional protections for criminals and the accused. His scholarship includes contributions to books published by Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press, as well as articles in U.S. and foreign law reviews and in philosophy journals such as Metaphilosophy. He has been an invited speaker at numerous legal and philosophy conferences and has addressed both U.S. and foreign academic audiences. His work is featured in Legal-Phi, which is an online venue that profiles the work of rising stars in the field of legal philosophy.