4th AMENDMENT Flashcards
What are the protections of the 4th amendment?
It protects citizens from unreasonable search and seizures by government forces
What is a search?
Search occurs when the government enters and area where an individual has a subjective and objective reasonable expectation of privacy
What is a seizure?
Seizure occurs when government action results in a meaningful interference with a possessory interest.
Reasonable Expectation of Privacy (SUB/OBV)
Subjective expectation - Defendent attempts to shield things or activity the police are looking for from public
Objective reasonable - Defendant’s expectation is one society is willing to recognize as legitimate
What are examples of areas where there are no REP?
- Handwriting exemplars shared with third parties
- Voice exemplars
- Bank records
- Pen registers
- Open fields
- Naked observations of private property
- Aerial photography of fenced in areas using cameras
- Discarded and abandoned property
Devices/Animals that enhance human senses
Police Dogs - Use of senses to search for narcotics not search since no privacy in contraband.
Curtilage exception - If dog is brought onto curtilage this is a search
Use of normal equipment to imprvoe senses is not a search unless they intrude upon curtilage or are extremely invasive
Search Warrant
Allows police to search a specified place for contraband
Arrest Warrant
Allows police to arrest subject AND implicit authority to search the suspect’s home if:
police believe the subject is home and suspects refuses to respond to open door request
Warrant Requirements
- Probable Cause
- Neutral and detached magistrate
- Particularity of thing to be seized or place to be searched
Knock-and-Announce rule
Police must “knock and announce” their identity before entering home
Probable Cause
Fair probability exists based on facts and circumstances that lead a reasonable office to conclude that an individual committed a crime or contraband can be found at a particular location.
How can PC be established?
Eyewitness observations, forensic evidence, suspect’s own admissions.
For eyewitness use totality of circumstances based on specific details and veracity
Terry Stop
Brief investigatory stop. Must be reasonable since its a seizure. Requires reasonable suspicion.
Limited in scope and time to either confirming or negating the suspicion
Reasonable Suspicion for Terry Stop
Officer articulates objective act that supports their experience-based instinct or suspicion.
Plain View Exception (4th Amendment)
Police can seize property they observe in public or while acting with the scope of a lawful search.
- Lawful vantage point
- Item establishes PC
- Lawful access to enable seizure
Automobile Exception
Police can search automobile once they have PC. They can search a container if they have PC to believe the container contain contrband or evidence
Inventory Exception
Police can search inventory of vehicle legally impounded
Consent
Individual waives his 4th amendment rights
Administrative Searches
Agency can conduct searches without PC pursuant to regulations of that agency
Exigent Circumstances
Police can seize evidence in certain emergency situations where time of essence
Third-Party-Consent
Person consenting must have actual or apparent authority to consent
Applies to common areas but not areas under a person’s exclusive control:
- Landlord not sufficient for tenants apartment
- Motel owner not sufficient for guest’s room
- Employer not sufficient for employee’s private storage area.
Special Needs Doctrine
Permits narrowly tailored seizures and/pr searches without any individualized suspicion when facts indicate that the primary purpose is the protection of public from immediate danger.
Test:
- Based on a fixed formula that deprives individual officer of discretion to select subjects
- Narrowly tailored in scope to address specific threat
- Conducted in a location to minimize citizen anxiety
Examples:
- Sobriety Checkpoints
- Search for escaped inmates
- Counter-terrorism checkpoints
- Drug testing of airline pilots and railroad engineers
A simple hope to find evidence that doesn’t involve a special needs program will fail
Border Exception
As an incident of national sovereignty, government officials may:
- stop people and vehicles at permanent checkpoints located at or near (100 miles) a border with random searches
- conduct random searches of people or property
Reasonable suspicion required:
1. Non-routine searches (unusually physically intrusive searches)
2, roving border stops on us roads
Applies to all international ports or entry points
Fourth Amendment Remedies
Violation of 4th amendment doesn’t automatically result in exclusion of evidence
Exclusion requires that:
- Unreasonable search or seizure triggers the remedy of exclusion
- Defendant has standing
- facts do not support applying an exception to the exclusionary rule
