Final Exam Flashcards
Incorporation
The extent to which the amendments in the Bill of Rights apply to state government.
Where does incorporation stem from?
Due process clause in the Fourteenth Amendment.
Fundamental rights incorporation
court intervenes only when there is a fundamental right at stake
Full (total) incorporation
Entire Bill of Rights applies to state and local government actors
Full incorporation plus
Total incorporation plus fundamental rights not articulated in the Bill of Rights
Selective Incorporation
Determine whether each right in Bill of Rights applies on a case-by-case basis. This is the method of incorporation used by the Supreme Court.
Brown v. Mississippi
Issue: Are convictions that rest on confessions exacted by torture consistent with 14th amendment due process requirements?
Facts: Lynched/beaten by law enforcement officers before confessions, trial court knew of this.
Holding: State is free to regulate procedure of its courts as it wishes unless its procedure offends a fundamental principle of justice.
Powell v. Alabama
Issue: Whether the defendants were denied the right to counsel and whether this denial infringes upon the due process clause.
Facts: Scuffle on the train between the white and black boys, black boys ended up being accused of raping two white women, defendant’s argued they didn’t do it, all were sentenced with the death penalty. Evidence the boys weren’t even on the same train.
Holding: Court has a duty to assign counsel in a capital case where the defendant can’t procure his own counsel.
Takeaways: Shows that criminal procedure emerges from extreme failures in the criminal justice system.
Purpose of exclusionary rule
- Deter unconstitutional investigative practices
- Compel respect for the constitution by government actors
Weeks v. United States
Issue: Was property obtained in violation of the 14th amendment?
Facts: A neighbor told law enforcement officers where the key was, Weeks did not give permission. Evidence was found and used against him, was the substance of his conviction. One search by local police, one search by federal government actors. No warrant, no permission.
Holding: Grants relief as it pertains to federal government actors, but not the local officers. Local officers were not acting under any claim of federal authority.
Takeaways: No incorporation at this point - only federal actors were bound by the Constitution so the evidence they seized could be excluded.
Wolf v. Colorado
Issue: Two Issues
1). Does a conviction by a state court for a state offense deny the due process of law required by 14th amendment, solely because evidence that was admitted at trial was obtained in circumstances that would have rendered it inadmissible in federal court?
2). Should the exclusionary rule apply when state actors, rather than federal actors, commit an unreasonable search or seizure?
Facts: Colorado state court admitted evidence that was obtained in a way that would have violated the Fourth Amendment.
Holding: Security of privacy against arbitrary intrusion is a basic right to a free society, but such evidence does not need to be excluded.
Takeaways: The right against freedom from searches and seizures exists at the state level, but the exclusionary rule does not apply to evidence obtained in that manner.
Mapp v. Ohio
Issue: In a state prosecution for a state crime, does the 14th Amendment prohibit the admission of evidence obtained by an unreasonable search and seizure?
Facts: Officers arrived at the house looking for suspect in recent bombing. Her attorney advised her not to let them in and they returned with more officers. She did not consent to the search. An “apparent” search warrant was shown, scuffle ensued. Obscene materials were found.
Holding: All evidence obtained by illegal searches and seizures is inadmissible in a state court (applies Weeks standard to STATE courts in addition to federal courts; overrules Wolf).
Takeaways: Exclusionary rule is necessary to recognize the right to be free from illegal searches and seizures.
Trespass Approach to Searches
There is no violation of the Fourth Amendment unless there is a trespass to private property (a physical intrusion)
Open Fields Doctrine
An open field is unoccupied or undeveloped land outside the curtilage of the home and is not an “effect” within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment
Oliver v. United States
Law enforcement trespassed on defendants’ rural property, ignoring “No Trespass” signs and discovering fields of marijuana. Supreme Court held that police entry into open fields does not implicate the Fourth Amendment.
United States v. Dunn Curtilage Test
Four Factor test
1). The proximity of the area to the home
2). Whether the area is in an enclosure near the home
3). The nature of the uses of the area
4). Steps taken to protect the area from outside observation
Curtilage goes vertically too.
Third Party Doctrine (Search)
Any information shared with a third party is not protected by the Fourth Amendment, so the government can collect information from that third party without undertaking a “search.”
Katz v. United States
Issue: Whether Katz had a reasonable expectation of privacy and whether it constituted a search?
Facts: Federal agents attached a listening device to the outside of the phone booth, Katz was indicted for transmitting wagering information.
Holding: the government’s activities violated the privacy upon which Katz justifiably relied while using the telephone booth and thus constituted a search and seizure.
-What a person knowingly exposes to the public, even in his own home or office, is not a subject of fourth amendment protection. But what he seeks to preserve as private, even in an area accessible to the public, may be constitutionally protected” (pg. 97).
-Rejects trespass approach
Reasonable Expectation of Privacy Test (Search)
From Harlan’s concurrence in Katz:
- Person exhibits subjective expectation of privacy AND
- Expectation is one that society is prepared to recognize as reasonable
United States v. White
Issue: Does the Fourth Amendment bar evidence from the testimony of informants who relay the contents of conversations with the defendant?
Facts: Conversations between White and an informant were recorded and transmitted to government agents. These conversations happened in the informant’s home and other places that were seemingly private.
Holding: There is no expectation of privacy regarding the contents of a conversation with a government informant.
-Defendant could not exclude the informant’s actual testimony, so there is no reason he should be able to exclude the recording of the conversation.
Takeaways: One contemplating illegal activities must realize and risk that his companions may be reporting to the police (aka a government informant).
Kyllo v. United States
Issue: Whether the use of a thermal imaging device aimed at a private home from a public street to detect relative amounts of heat within the home constitutes a search within the meaning of the 4th amendment?
Facts: FBI suspected Kyllo of growing marijuana, used a thermal scanner from the public street, garage was much warmer so the judge issued a warrant.
Holding: Obtaining information through sense-enhancing technology about the interior of the home constitutes a search when the technology in question is not in the general public use.
Takeaways: Supreme Court recognizes that while there is no expectation of privacy interest prohibiting aerial surveillance of a commercial space (Dow), dog sniffing at an airport for narcotics (Place), or visual surveillance of a private residence, there is one that prohibits the thermal imaging of a private residence.
United States v. Jones
Issue: Whether the attachment of a GPS device to an individual’s vehicle, and subsequent use of that device to monitor the vehicle’s movement on public streets, constitutes a search or seizure within the meaning of the 4th amendment
Facts: Jones suspected of narcotics trafficking. Law enforcement used visual surveillance and wiretapping to obtain a warrant authorizing a GPS tracking device for the vehicle. GPS was installed outside of warrant period, tracked him for four months, and got 2,000 pages of data to use for an indictment.
Holding: Revives trespass test - this was a search because it was a physical occupation of private property to obtain information. There are two tests: Katz reasonable expectation of privacy and trespass standard.
Concurrence: Would exclusively apply reasonable expectation of privacy test.
Takeaways: Katz expands on the trespass standard and does not replace it. The reasonable expectation of privacy test and trespass test co-exist.
Florida v. Jardines
Issue: Does use of a drug-sniffing dog to investigate the contents of a private home from the front porch violate the Fourth Amendment?
Facts: Police investigate a tip that Jardines is growing marijuana in his home. They approached the house with a drug-sniffing dog, which indicated that it smelled drugs when they reached the front porch. This information was used to obtain a search warrant for the house.
Holding: The government’s use of a police dog to investigate the home and its immediate surroundings constituted a search.
Takeaways: Porch was part of the curtilage, which is protected like the rest of the home. Information was gathered by physically entering and occupying the curtilage without the permission of the homeowner.
Seizure
Meaningful interference with an individual’s possessory interests in that property
US v. Karo
Issue: Does the installation of a beeper in a container of chemicals with the consent of the original owner constitute a seizure under the Fourth Amendment when the container is delivered to a buyer who has no knowledge of the presence of the beeper?
Facts: With the consent of an informant, DEA agents substituted a can in a shipment with a can obtaining a beeper. It was then passed on to Karo.
Holding: No seizure because the beeper was installed with the permission of the original owner.
Takeaways: There’s a seizure where a possessory interest in property has been implicated
Carpenter v. United States
Issue: Whether the government conducts a search under the Fourth Amendment when it accesses historical cell phone records that provide a comprehensive chronicle of the user’s past movements.
Facts: Law enforcement investigates robberies in Detroit and uses Stored Communications Act to collect data about Carpenter’s location over the period in which the robberies took place.
Holding: There was a search and a reasonable expectation of privacy for these records.
-“A detailed chronicle of a person’s physical presence compiled every day, every moment, over several years implicates privacy concerns” and constitutes a search that must be supported by probable cause pursuant to the fourth amendment
Takeaways: Third-party doctrine is not applied here. Even though cell phone data goes through the phone company, it has an intimate nature that distinguishes it from other things like banking records.
Probable cause
“where the facts and circumstances within the officers’ knowledge and of which they have reasonably trustworthy information are sufficient in themselves to warrant a man of reasonable caution in the belief that an offense has been or is being committed” by the person to be arrested
Spinelli v. United States
Issue: Does the informant’s tip provide sufficient probable cause for a warrant?
Facts: There were four allegations in the search warrant affidavit, had two phones, and information from the confidential informant.
Holding: There is no probable cause here, even when elements of the tip were corroborated.
Takeaways: Reaffirms Aguilar test and requirements for probable cause. In Aguilar, the Court held that a search warrant is inadequate where it fails to set forth the underlying circumstances necessary to enable the magistrate to make an independent judgment of the conclusions in it; and where it does not provide support showing that the informant’s assertions were credible.
(1) veracity/reliability: consider the reliability of the underlying tip
(2) basis of knowledge: consider the underlying circumstances that form the basis of its conclusions
Illinois v. Gates
Issue: Can an anonymous letter, that the police have corroborated, provide a basis for probable cause for a search warrant?
Facts: Police received a letter that two individuals were drug dealers and that they were going to pick up $100,000 worth (route was described) Police corroborated this information, had an agent on the plane, and then searched their car and home.
Holding: Warrant was acceptable and probable cause existed given the validation of the anonymous tip.
Rule: An informant’s veracity or reliability and the basis of knowledge “are better understood as relevant considerations in the totality of circumstances analysis that traditionally has guided probable cause determinations: a deficiency in one may be compensated for, in determining the overall reliability of a tip, by a strong showing as to the other, or by some other indicia of reliability.”
Takeaways: Overruled the Spinelli-Aguilar test and held that probable cause should be evaluated based on the “totality of circumstances.” Individual prongs are still relevant, but you don’t need both of them to establish probable cause.
Arrest warrant
issued by magistrate on showing that probable cause exists to believe that the subject of the warrant has committed an offense and thus the warrant primarily serves to protect a person from unreasonable seizure
Search warrant
issued upon showing of probable cause to believe that legitimate object of a search is located in a particular place and safeguards an individual’s interest in the privacy of his home and possessions against unjustified intrusion of the police.
Knock and Announce Rule
Implicit rule in Fourth Amendment that law enforcement officers knock and announce their presence before entering a premises.
Payton v. New York
Issue: Whether and under what circumstances an officer may enter a suspect’s home to make a warrantless arrest.
Holding: Although there was probable cause, the nonconsensual entry into a suspect’s home to effectuate an arrest requires an arrest warrant and reason to believe the suspect is within the premises.
Takeaway: The court distinguished this case from Watson, which held that police can conduct warrantless arrests that are founded on probable cause in public spaces
Gerstein v. Pugh
The government “must provide a fair and reliable determination of probable cause as a condition for any significant pretrial restraint of liberty, and this determination must be made by a judicial officer either before or promptly after arrest.”
Probable cause determinations are required within 48 hours, absent extraordinary circumstances.
Johnson v. United States
Holding: When the right of privacy must reasonably yield to right of search is, as a rule, to be decided by a judicial officer, not by a policeman or government enforcement agent.
Lo-Ji Sales v. New York
Issue: Was the warrant that left seizure discretion to the officials conducting the search constitutional?
Facts: During a pornography investigation, the Town Justice accompanied the police officers and participated in the search, reviewing materials as they moved through the store to determine what was obscene. Warrant was open-ended and filled in after the search was complete.
Holding: Open-ended search warrants are impermissible. This particular warrant was not limited to particular items and resembled a general warrant.
Takeaways: There must be a neutral and detached judicial officer assessing whether to grant a search warrant. Here, the town justice allowed himself to become a part of the investigation.
Policy: can handle illicitness versus going back to general warrant.
Richards v. Wisconsin
Issue: Whether there should be a case-by-case evaluation of the manner in which a search was conducted to determine violations of the knock and announce rule.
Facts: Officers obtained a warrant to search Richards’s hotel room. He opened the door when they knocked, then closed it again. Officers then entered the apartment. Wisconsin S. Ct. held that felony drug searches reasonably justify a no-knock entry blanket exception to the knock and announce rule.
Holding: Rejected blanket rule and said that it should be on a case-by-case basis every time, but in this specific case the no-knock entry was permissible.
Concerns about creating blanket exceptions for knock and announce rule
- Considerable overgeneralization – not every drug investigation will pose these substantial risks.
- Exceptions for this category could easily bleed into other categories and totally destroy the knock-and-announce element of the Fourth Amendment’s reasonableness requirement.
Warden v. Hayden
Facts: After entering a home immediately after a robbery to apprehend the suspect, police officers searched the home for him and any weapons. They found both.
Holding: Searches without a warrant are permissible where the “exigencies of the situation” make the search necessary.
Takeaway: This is classic example of hot pursuit.
Kentucky v. King
Issue: Does the exigent circumstance rule apply when the police knock and announce, causing the occupants to attempt to destroy the evidence?
Facts: An officer watched a controlled buy of cocaine. Officers followed the suspect into an apartment building, but he disappeared and they did not know if he was in the apartment on the left or right side of the hall. They smelled marijuana coming from the apartment on the left, so they knocked and announced. They then heard noises that made them believe that evidence was being destroyed, so they entered and found drugs. The original suspect was in the other apartment.
Holding: one exception to the warrant requirement is where “the exigencies of the situation make the needs of law enforcement so compelling that a warrantless search is objectively reasonable under the 4th amendment”
Chimel v. California
Facts: Three officers arrived at Chimel’s house with an arrest warrant in connection to a burglary. They asked for permission to look around, which Chimel denied. They proceeded to look around the house anyway (opening drawers, etc.) for about an hour.
Issue: While the arrest was valid, was the warrantless search of the petitioner’s entire house constitutionally justified as incident to arrest?
Holding: This was an unreasonable search. The search incident to arrest doctrine allows police to search the person of and immediate area within reach of an arrestee. It does not allow the search of an arrestee’s entire house.
Takeaway: General rule is that an officer can search the person arrested and the area where they might reach to get a weapon or evidentiary item.
United States v. Robinson
- Court upheld the search of a cigarette packet inside the arrestee’s pocket because the probable cause to justify the valid arrest was enough to justify the additional intrusion of the search of items on the person.
- Robinson adopted a categorical rule permitting an arresting officer to search containers discovered on an arrestees person
Riley v. California
Facts: In Case 1, Riley was arrested. His smartphone was found and searched, and officers found texts and images they believed associated him with a gang and that connected him to an earlier shooting. In Case 2, Wurie’s flip phone was used to track his home phone number to an apartment building, which officers then searched and found drugs.
Issue: Whether the police, without a warrant, may search digital information on a cell phone seized from an individual they have arrested.
Holding: Declined to extend Robinson to search for data on a cell phone, held officers must generally secure a warrant before conducting a search.
Rationale for greater protection of cell phones
- cell phones are mini-computers with lots of personal/intimate information,
- no worry about officer safety
- concerns about destruction of evidence are remote.
Where might circumstances justify the search of a cell phone?
Bombing suspect, child abduction, extreme emergency that warrants immediate intrusion.
New York v. Belton
Facts: Car was pulled over for speeding. Officers said they smelled marijuana and saw an envelope with a label that referenced marijuana, so the entire car was searched. During the search of the car, Belton’s jacket was found with cocaine in the pocket.
Issue: There is no straightforward rule to apply. The question of the proper scope of a search of the interior of an automobile incident to a lawful custodial arrest of its occupants
Holding: Relying on Robinson precedent, the Court held that the search of the passenger compartment of a vehicle falls within the search incident to arrest exception for vehicle occupants who have been arrested.
Takeaway: A single familiar standard is essential to guide police officers, who only have limited time and expertise to reflect on and balance interests involved in the circumstances they face. Won’t be making case by case assessments.