Procedural law focuses on how the criminal law is enforced, how evidence is collected, and the rights guaranteed to persons accused of crimes. Contrary to popular belief, the Bill of Rights of the Constitution has not always provided such guarantees to people tried in State courts. It was only the United States Supreme Court decisions of the 1960s that made the due-process rights embodied in the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Eighth Amendments applicable to the States and to citizens tried in those states as a matter of constitutional guarantee. After this period, the exclusionary rule enforced the right to constitutional arrest, the privilege against unreasonable searches and seizures, the privilege against self-incrimination, and the right to counsel. Other trial rights such as a speedy trial and a public trial were not granted to all defendants in State courts until the early 1970s. The more conservative recent Supreme Court decisions have somewhat retracted many of the rights that seemed to have been expanded by the Court during the 1960s. The two most recent appointments to the Supreme Court have resulted in more centered opinions. Figures, tables, photographs, notes, discussion and review questions, lists of cases and laws cited, and 29 references