ABSTRACT
The Sixth Amendment to the Constitution contains the Confrontation Clause, a critical feature of the adversarial system of criminal law used in US courts. The Confrontation Clause requires that an accused person be permitted to challenge, through cross-examination, the arguments, testimony, and credibility of those who would testify against the accused. The Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, held that the Confrontation Clause guarantees an accused the opportunity to confront witnesses and have them cross-examined by counsel. In short, the Confrontation Clause guarantees the accused a right to confront adverse witnesses in all significant criminal proceedings, the purpose of which is to ensure the reliability of evidence. The Supreme Court ruled five- four that the use of the screen was unconstitutional because the Confrontation Clause guarantees a criminal defendant the right to a physical face-to-face confrontation with adverse witnesses during testimony.
