4th AMENDMENT

Question 1

What are the protections of the 4th amendment?

Answer 1

It protects citizens from unreasonable search and seizures by government forces

Question 2

What is a search?

Answer 2

Search occurs when the government enters and area where an individual has a subjective and objective reasonable expectation of privacy

Question 3

What is a seizure?

Answer 3

Seizure occurs when government action results in a meaningful interference with a possessory interest.

Question 4

Reasonable Expectation of Privacy (SUB/OBV)

Answer 4

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

Question 5

What are examples of areas where there are no REP?

Answer 5

1. Handwriting exemplars shared with third parties
2. Voice exemplars
3. Bank records
4. Pen registers
5. Open fields
6. Naked observations of private property
7. Aerial photography of fenced in areas using cameras
8. Discarded and abandoned property

Question 6

Devices/Animals that enhance human senses

Answer 6

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

Question 7

Search Warrant

Answer 7

Allows police to search a specified place for contraband

Question 8

Arrest Warrant

Answer 8

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

Question 9

Warrant Requirements

Answer 9

1. Probable Cause
2. Neutral and detached magistrate
3. Particularity of thing to be seized or place to be searched

Question 10

Knock-and-Announce rule

Answer 10

Police must “knock and announce” their identity before entering home

Question 11

Probable Cause

Answer 11

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.

Question 12

How can PC be established?

Answer 12

Eyewitness observations, forensic evidence, suspect’s own admissions.

For eyewitness use totality of circumstances based on specific details and veracity

Question 13

Terry Stop

Answer 13

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

Question 14

Reasonable Suspicion for Terry Stop

Answer 14

Officer articulates objective act that supports their experience-based instinct or suspicion.

Question 15

Plain View Exception (4th Amendment)

Answer 15

Police can seize property they observe in public or while acting with the scope of a lawful search.

1. Lawful vantage point
2. Item establishes PC
3. Lawful access to enable seizure

Question 16

Automobile Exception

Answer 16

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

Question 17

Inventory Exception

Answer 17

Police can search inventory of vehicle legally impounded

Question 18

Consent

Answer 18

Individual waives his 4th amendment rights

Question 19

Administrative Searches

Answer 19

Agency can conduct searches without PC pursuant to regulations of that agency

Question 20

Exigent Circumstances

Answer 20

Police can seize evidence in certain emergency situations where time of essence

Question 21

Third-Party-Consent

Answer 21

Person consenting must have actual or apparent authority to consent

Applies to common areas but not areas under a person’s exclusive control:

1. Landlord not sufficient for tenants apartment
2. Motel owner not sufficient for guest’s room
3. Employer not sufficient for employee’s private storage area.

Question 22

Special Needs Doctrine

Answer 22

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:

1. Based on a fixed formula that deprives individual officer of discretion to select subjects
2. Narrowly tailored in scope to address specific threat
3. Conducted in a location to minimize citizen anxiety

Examples:

1. Sobriety Checkpoints
2. Search for escaped inmates
3. Counter-terrorism checkpoints
4. Drug testing of airline pilots and railroad engineers

A simple hope to find evidence that doesn’t involve a special needs program will fail

Question 23

Border Exception

Answer 23

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

Question 24

Fourth Amendment Remedies

Answer 24

Violation of 4th amendment doesn’t automatically result in exclusion of evidence

Exclusion requires that:

1. Unreasonable search or seizure triggers the remedy of exclusion
2. Defendant has standing
3. facts do not support applying an exception to the exclusionary rule