Final Exam Flashcards
(117 cards)
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