Fourth Amendment - Evidentiary Search and Seizure Flashcards
Reasonableness fro Evidentiary Search and Seizure
- similar to arrests in that evidentiary searches and seizures require reasonableness
- BUT such reasonableness requires a warrant except in six circumstances
Evidentiary Search and Seizure Issues - Questions to Ask
- does the defendant have a 4th Am right (seizure by the gov concerning a place or thing where def had a reasonable expectation of privacy) or does the search involve a physical intrusion into a constitutionally protected area?
- did the police officers have a valid warrant (issued by a neutral and detached magistrate on a showing of probable cause and reasonably precise as to the place to be searched and items to be seized)?
- If the police officers did not have a valid warrant, was the search or seizure within one of the six exceptions to the warrant requirement?
Search and Seizure - Gov Conduct
- 4th Am generally protects only against gov conduct
-> police officers, gov agents, or private individuals acting at the direction of the public police - does NOT protect against searches by privately paid police unless they’re deputized as officers of the public police
-> exs of private police: store security guards, subdivision police, + campus police
Ways in Which Searches + Seizures Can Implication 4th Am Rights
1) search or seizure by gov agent of a constitutionally protected area in which indiv had a reasonable expectation of privacy
2) physical intrusion by gov into a constitutionally protected area to obtain info
Standing - Searches and Seizures
- person must have standing to object to a gov search -> need reasonable expectation of privacy wrt place searched or item seized
- based on totality of the circumstances
Common Reasonable Expectation of Privacy Instances
Person has reasonable expectation of privacy anytime:
- person owned or had right to possession of the place searched
- place searched was in fact the person’s home, whether or not they owned or had a right to possession
- person was an overnight guest of the place searched
Sometimes category:
- person owns the property seized - have standing only if they have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the item or area searched
Things Held Out to the Public - General Concept
- person DOESN’T have reasonable expectation of privacy in objects geld out to the public
-> generally includes info in hands of third parties - EXCEPTION - cell-site location info (person DOES have reasonable expectation of privacy for this, even when stored in hands of third parties)
Things Held Out to the Public - List
All do NOT implicate right to privacy
1) sound of one’s voice
2) style of one’s handwriting
3) paint on outside of one’s car
4) account records held by a bank
5) location of one’s car on a public street or in a driveway (although installing GPS device WOULD constitute 4th Am search)
6) anything that can be seen across the open fields
7) anything that can be seen from flying over public airspace
8) odors emanating from luggage or car
9) Garbage set out on the curb for collection
Sense-enhancing Tech
- use of sense-enhancing tech that is not in general public use (ex: a thermal imager as opposed to a telephoto camera lens) to obtain info from inside suspect’s home that couldn’t otherwise be obtained without physical intrusion violates suspect’s legitimate expectation of privacy
- police also can’t covertly and trespassorily place a GPS tracking device on a person’s automobile without a warrant
Core Requirements for Warrant
- probable cause
- particularity
Probable Cause for Warrants
- warrant issued only if there is probable cause to believe that seizable ev will be found on person or premises at time warrant is executed
- officers must submit to a magistrate an affidavit setting forth circumstances enabling the magistrate to make a determination of probable cause independent of the officers’ conclusions
Warrants - Use of Informants
- affidavit based on informer’s tip must meet “totality of the circumstances” test
- informant’s reliability and credibility or their basis for knowledge = relevant factors in making determination
- informer’s identity generally need not be revealed
“Behind the Face” of the Affidavit - Warrant Validity
Search warrant issued on basis of affidavit will be held invalid if the defendant establishes all three of the following:
- a false statement was included in the affidavit by the affiant (the officer applying for the warrant)
- the affiant intentionally or recklessly included the false statement, AND
- the false statement was material to the finding of probable cause
NOTE - restrictive test -> defs rarely succeed in challenging warrants on this basis
What happens if warrant not supported by probable cause?
- prosecution MAY use evidence obtained by police in reasonable reliance on facially valid warrant, DESPITE an ultimate finding that the warrant WASN’T supported by probable cause
- “good faith exception”
- BUT only applies if police actually obtained a warrant, not if they failed to do so
Particularity
- warrant must describe w/ particularity place to be searched + items to be seized
- if it doesn’t, warrant = unconstitutional, even if underlying affidavit gives such detail
