Orin S. Kerr | 3.16.2024 4:57 AM

I recently rewatched Beverly Hills Cop (1984), the Eddie Murphy movie, which came out when I was in junior high school. It dawned on me that the movie is not just a vehicle for Eddie Murphy's comic talents. It is that, to be clear; Murphy is fantastic in the movie. But there's a more important legal angle: Beverly Hills Cop is a Fourth Amendment movie.

There are lots of Fourth Amendment issues in the movie. But the key scene, at the warehouse, could be an exam question.

Recall the facts.

Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy's character) is a Detroit cop on vacation who is trying to investigate his friend's murder. He is trying to get the police in Beverly Hills to investigate, but they refuse. The Beverly Hills police chief instead orders Foley out of town, instructing Beverly Hills officer Billy Rosewood (played by Judge Reinhold) to drive Foley to the outskirts of town.

On the drive, however, Foley persuades Rosewood to ignore his orders and to bring Foley and his old friend Jenny Summers to a warehouse where Foley expects to find drugs being trafficked by Victor Maitland, the art dealer turned drug trafficker. Summers has the key........

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