Fourth Amendment

Question 1

What does the Fourth Amendment protect against?

Answer 1

Unreasonable searches and seizures.

Question 2

What must an arrest be based on?

Answer 2

Probable cause.

Question 3

Are arrest warrants always required to arrest someone?

Answer 3

You can arrest someone in a public place.

Question 4

Can you arrest someone in their home without an arrest warrant?

Answer 4

No, unless an emergency presents itself (not really defined in outline though)

Question 5

In order for police to compel you to come to the police station for either fingerprinting or interrogation what must they have?

Answer 5

Probable cause.

Question 6

Do police have the power to stop a person with probable cause?

Answer 6

The police have the authority to briefly detain a person even if they lack probable cause to arrest. This is a Terry Stop.

Question 7

What must police have to make a Terry Stop?

Answer 7

Police must have a reasonable suspicion supported by articuable facts of criminal activity.

Question 8

Will a hunch suffice reasonable suspicion to make a Terry Stop?

Answer 8

No.

Question 9

Whether the police have reasonable suspicion depends on what?

Answer 9

The totality of the circumstances.

Question 10

When may police stop an automobile?

Answer 10

If they have at least reasonable suspicion that the law has been violated. With the exception of check point road blocks.

Question 11

When can check point road blocks be used?

Answer 11

As long as they are neutrally applied. Typically they are DUI checkpoints and Border Crossing checkpoints.

Question 12

Is the use of police sniffing dogs okay?

Answer 12

A sniff is not a search, so long as the police do not extend the stop beyond the time needed to issue a ticket or conduct normal inquires.

Question 13

Can a dog alert form probable cause?

Answer 13

Yes.

Question 14

Can police use dogs outside the home of a suspected drug dealer?

Answer 14

Not without probable cause.

Question 15

What are the steps to a search and seizure question?

Answer 15

1. Governmental conduct
2. Reasonable expectation of privacy?
3. Did the police have a valid search warrant?
4. If the warrant is not valid, does an officer’s good faith defense save the defective search warrant?
5. If a warrant is invalid and cannot be saved by the good faith defense or if the police never had any warrant at all, then you move to the last step: Exceptions to the warrant requirement

Question 16

Who can take governmental conduct sufficient for step 1?

Answer 16

Publicly paid police, private individual acting at direction of public police, privately paid police if they are deputized with the power to arrest you

Question 17

What are the automatic categories of standing?

Answer 17

1. Own the premises searched
2. Live on the premises searched
3. Overnight guest

Sometimes, if you own the property being seized if you have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the item or area searched.

Question 18

Homer and his girlfriend Marge are walking down the street when Homer sees police officers walking toward them. In a somewhat nonchalant manner, Homer takes drugs out of his pocket and stuffs them into Marge’s purse. Homer is arrested, and he later admits that the drugs were his. Does Homer have standing to object to the search of Marge’s purse?

Answer 18

No, he does not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in Marge’s purse

Question 19

In what cases do you have “No standing”, e.g. no expectation of privacy? Name some examples.

Answer 19

Anything you hold out to the public everyday. Such as: sound of your voice, handwriting, paint on the outside of your car, account records held by the bank, monitoring the location of your car on a public street, anything that can be seen across the open fields, anything that can be seen flying over the public airspace, the odors emanating from your luggage or car, your garbage set out on the curb for collection.

BUT Installation of a GPS on a suspect’s car constitutes a search w/in the Fourth Amendment.

Question 20

What are the core requirements for a valid search warrant?

Answer 20

Probable cause and particularity

Question 21

What is the standard for probable cause for a search warrant?

Answer 21

A fair probability that contraband or evidence of a crime will be found in the area searched.

Question 22

What must be stated with particularity in a search warrant?

Answer 22

The place to be seized and the things to be seized.

Question 23

If an officer’s affidavit or probable cause is based on informant information, what is its sufficiency based on?

Answer 23

The totality of the circumstances.The informants credibility and basis of knowledge are factors in making this determination.

Question 24

Can a search warrant be based solely upon an anonymous informant tip?

Answer 24

No, but it may be based in part on the anonymous tip.

Question 25

When is “no knock” entry permitted in the execution of a search warrant?

Answer 25

If exigent circumstances exist, such as if knocking and announcing would be dangerous, futile, or inhibit the investigation. Or if the knocking would lead to the destruction of evidence.

Question 26

Will an officer’s good faith reliance upon a defective search warrant be okay?

Answer 26

Yes with exceptions.

Question 27

What are the exceptions to a good faith reliance on a defective search warrant?

Answer 27

1. The affidavit underlying that warrant is so lacking in probable cause that no reasonable police officer would have relied upon it.
2. The affidavit underlying the warrant is so lacking in particularity…
3. The police officer or prosecutor lied to or misled the magistrate when seeking the warrant
4. If the magistrate is biased, and therefore has wholly abandoned his neutrality.

Question 28

What are the six exceptions to the search warrant requirement?

Answer 28

1. Search incident to arrest
2. Automobile Exception
3. Consent
4. Plain View
5. Stop and Frisk
6. Evanescent evidence, hot pursuit, and special needs searches

Question 29

In conducting a search incident to an arrest, what are the requirements to do so?

Answer 29

1. Arrest must be lawful.
2. Arrest and search must be contemporaneous in time and place
3. The person and areas within the person’s wingspan can be searched

Question 30

Regarding searches incident to arrests and automobiles, when may the police search the interior of the automobile?

Answer 30

Only if (a) the arrestee is unsecured and still may gain access to the interior of the vehicle OR (b) the police reasonably believe that evidence of the offense for which the person was arrested may be found in the vehicle.

Question 31

Defendant is lawfully arrested in Philadelphia at noon and the police later
search him in Pittsburgh at 5pm. Is this a valid search incident to arrest?

Answer 31

No, not contemporaneous in time and place.

Question 32

The police arrested Defendant for driving on a suspended license shortly after he stepped out of his car. Defendant was then handcuffed and placed in a squad car. The police then searched the passenger compartment of Defendant’s car and found cocaine in a jacket in the car. Is this a valid search incident to arrest?

Answer 32

No, the arrestee was secured and there is no way you could find evidence for which he was arrested in the vehicle.

Question 33

While on patrol in her squad car, Officer LaGuerta sees a car swerving across the center lane and driving erratically. The Officer stops the car, and approaches the
driver side window. The man in the car and the car itself reek of alcohol, and the man’s speech is slurred. After administering a sobriety test (which the driver failed), the driver
is arrested, handcuffed and placed in the back of the locked squad car. Officer Laguerta then searches the man’s car and finds drugs and an illegal handgun. Will these items be admissible at the man’s trial?

Answer 33

Likely yes, because you found find alcohol in the car. The car reeked of booze.

It makes no difference if what was found was not for the arrest, it is allowed if the search is lawful.

Question 34

While on patrol in their squad car, Officers Ponch and John observe a car speed past them going well over the posted speed limit. Ponch approaches the driver side window and asks for the driver’s license and registration. While pulling out his license, a bag of crack cocaine and a pipe falls out of the man’s pocket, which Ponch observes. Ponch asks the driver to step out the car and then informs the driver that he is under arrest. While reading the driver his Miranda rights and attempting to handcuff him, the man breaks free and runs off. Officer Ponch chases after him. Officer John, now with bad knees, does not join the chase, but instead searches the driver’s car. Officer John finds recently stolen jewelry under the passenger seat. Is this a valid search incident to arrest?

Answer 34

Yes, the arrestee was unsecured.

Question 35

What is the community caretaker rule?

Answer 35

It is an exception to the search incident to arrest rule, which justifies a warrantless search if an officer faces and emergency that threatens the health or safety of an individual or public.

Question 36

What is the automobile exception?

Answer 36

In order for the police to search anything or anybody and fall under the automobile they must have probable cause.

Question 37

What if police have probable cause before searching anybody or anything, what can they search?

Answer 37

They can search the entire car. Including the interior and trunk. If there is probable cause they may open (without a warrant) any package or luggage which may contain the item they had probable cause to look for, whether or not that package or container is owned by the passenger or driver!

Question 38

The DC police have over 30 reports that drugs are being sold out of the back of a car. The police know everything about the car, the make, the model, the license number but they know nothing about the drug seller. A DC police officer, aware of the 30 reports, sees the car go by driving at a lawful speed. The officer stops the car, but he does not arrest the driver. He orders the driver out of the car and searches the car. The officer finds a box under the passenger seat, opens the box and finds drugs. Will the drugs be admissible?

Answer 38

Yes, because the officer had probable cause.

Question 39

When must the probable cause necessary to justify the warrantless search of an auto under the automobile exception arise?

Answer 39

After the car is stopped, but before anything or anybody is searched.

Question 40

What must be true to constitute a valid plain view seizure?

Answer 40

The officer must be there legitimately and it must be immediately apparent that the item in contraband or the fruit of a crime.

Question 41

A police officer for no reason runs through the front door of your apartment and then sees the big pile of marijuana in plain view. Is this a valid exception to the
warrant requirement?

Answer 41

No, he was not there legitimately when he viewed the contraband.

Question 42

For consent to a search to be valid, what must the consent be?

Answer 42

Voluntary and intelligent.

Question 43

Can a third party consent to a search of your property?

Answer 43

If two or more people have a right to use a piece of property, either can consent to its warrantless search. However, if both people are present on one person consents and the other does not, the one who does not consent controls.

Question 44

Define a Terry Stop

Answer 44

A brief detention for the purpose of investigating suspicious conduct.

Question 45

What is the legal standard for stopping?

Answer 45

Reasonable suspicion

Question 46

Which is a higher standard, reasonable suspicion or probable cause?

Answer 46

Probable Cause

Question 47

What is a Terry Frisk

Answer 47

A pat down of the outer clothing the check for weapons.

Question 48

While on patrol in a high crime area, police officers notice a man standing on the corner wearing a red bandana and red shoes (typical colors of the Bloods street gang). The officers pull over and observe the man for fifteen minutes and the man never moves from the street corner. Suspecting him of being a drug dealer, the police approach him and say they would like to ask him a few questions. The man says he needs to leave the area and refuses. If the police persist, is this a valid Terry stop?

Answer 48

No, they do not have enough for reasonable suspicion

Question 49

NY police officers observe two teenage boys pushing a baby carriage down the street at midnight, and they notice that where the baby was supposed to be, there was a computer terminal. When the boys see the officers, they quickly turn in the opposite direction and speed up their pace. Can the police lawfully stop the boys?

Answer 49

Yes, there is enough for reasonable suspicion.

Question 50

Officers stop a man on reasonable suspicion, pat him down and feel
something in his pocket, which turns out to be a weapon. Is the weapon admissible?

Answer 50

Yes, so long as the stopping is reasonable and there is a reasonable belief that the man is armed and dangerous

Question 51

Officers stop a man on reasonable suspicion, pat him down and feel
something in his pocket. The officers reach inside and pull out evidence of a previous crime reported in the neighborhood - but not a weapon. Is the evidence admissible?

Answer 51

It will depend. If the officer reasonably believed by the plain feel that something is a weapon or contraband, then it will be admissible.

Question 52

If during an investigatory stop, probable cause arises, what then happens?

Answer 52

The detention turns into an arrest and the officer can conduct a full search incident to that arrest.

Question 53

What if a car is properly stopped for a traffic violation and the officer reasonably believes that the driver or passenger is armed and dangerous?

Answer 53

The officer may conduct a frisk of the suspected person AND may search the vehicle limited to areas in which a weapon may be placed.

Question 54

What is evanescent evidence?

Answer 54

Evidence that might disappear quickly.

Question 55

Here is an example of evanescent evidence:

Answer 55

A police officer can scrape under a suspect’s fingernails without getting a warrant because if you took the time to get a warrant the Defendant may wash his hands.

Question 56

When does the hot pursuit exception apply?

Answer 56

If police are within 15 minutes behind a fleeing felon, they may enter anyone’s home without a warrant, and any evidence they see in plain view will be admissible

Question 57

What is an inventory search and is it admissible?

Answer 57

It occurs before the incarceration of an arrestee. The police may search the arrestee’s personal belongings, and/or body

Question 58

Can you ever randomly drug test students?

Answer 58

Yes, but only if they are engaging in extra curricular activities, which would cover school dances.

Question 59

Can you search a student’s belongings?

Answer 59

Yes if investigating violations of school rules

Question 60

When is a school search held to be reasonable?

Answer 60

1. If it offers a moderate chance of finding evidence of wrongdoing; and
2. The measures adopted to carry out the search are reasonably related to the objectives of the search; and
3. The search is not excessively intrusive

Question 61

Joe, as the principal of Jews for Jesus High School believes Kristina, a 17 year old junior is in possession of marijuana, a violation of school rules. Joe calls Kristina to the office and demands she de-robe, bend over, and spread her buttocks apart “as far as the grand canyon”. Is Joe’s search permissible?

Answer 61

No. The search is excessively intrusive.

Question 62

Do wiretaps and eavesdropping require a warrant?

Answer 62

Yes, with exceptions to the eavesdropping rule.

Question 63

What are the exceptions to the eavesdropping rule?

Answer 63

Everybody in this society assumes the risk that the person to whom he is speaking will either consent to the government monitoring the conversation or will be wired and therefore has no Fourth Amendment objection on the basis that it was a warrantless search.

A speaker has no Fourth Amendment right if she makes no attempt to keep the conversation private.