lesson 3 Flashcards
Fourth amendment
Protects persons, houses, paper, and effects from unreasonable searches and seizures
Person
the individual as a whole, including the body and most oral communication from that person
House
A structure that provides a residence for either a person or a busniess
Papers & effects
“Papers”: documents
“effects”: catch=all phrase that includes anything that is not a paper, house, or person
What is a search and what needs to considered?
An activity geared toward finding evidence to be used in a criminal prosecution
- need consider:
1. ) whether the presumed search is a product of gov action
2. ) Whether the intrusion violates a person’s reasonable expectation of privacy
Seizure
to seize property usually for evidence or to seize people as in arrest
Governmental search
must be conducted with governmental action
-a citizen can do a serach and this has nothing to with government,but if it is directed by the government= governmental action
Issues related to privacy when considering the 4th amendment:
- ) Undercover agents
- ) Institutional rights
- ) Informants
- ) Privacy of one’s physical characteristics
- ) Open fields
- ) Curtilage
- ) Enhancement Devices
Undercover agent
Gov agent who pretends not to be a gov agent
-4th does not apply to reasonable expectation of privacy
Institutional agent
3rd party who turns evidence over to authorities
ex: phone company turns in phone records
Informant
any 3rd party
-providing info to any 3rd party is not protected
Physical characteristics
We knowingly expose physical characteristics to the public, so it is not within the scope of the 4th
- hair, voice, fingerprints, ect.
- U.S. v. Dionisio
Curtilage
the home or residence where intimate activities take place; it may include the front and backyards
Open fields
any unoccupied or undeveloped real property outside the home
-may include the garage under particular circumstances
Enhancement devices include:
- ) Flashlights
- ) Drug Dogs
- ) Satellite photography
- )Thermal Imagery
- ) Listening devices
- ) Other technologies
Factors determining appropriate level of sensory enhancement:
- ) The nature of the place survellied
- ) The nature of the activity surveillied
- ) The care taken to ensure privacy
- ) The lawfulness of the vantage point
- ) The availability of sophisticated behavior
- ) The extent to which the tech. used enhances or replaces the natural senses
Seizure of property
Occurs “when there is some meaningful interference with an individuals possessory interest in that property
- U.S. v. Jacobsen
- Actual possession and constructive possession
Actual possession
If the person is physically holding or grasping the property
Constructive possession
If the person is in possession of the property but not actually touching it
Seizure of persons
when police intentionally restrain an individuals liberty so that a reasonable person would beliieve that he or she is not gree to leave
probable cause
the facts and the circumstances within the officer’s knowledge and of which they have reasonable trustworthy information are sufficient to warrant prudent man in believing that the suspect had committed or was committing an offense
- Beck v. Ohio
Reasonable Suspicion
enough suspicion to believe a suspect committed a crime
-less definite than probable cause
Administrative Justice
When gov agencies sometimes conduce searches outside a criminal investigation
- search and seizure of evidence not an issue
- right to privacy is an issue
Courts criteria for reasonable suspicion
- ) the officer with R.S. may conduct a limited stop and frisk
- ) Officer does not have enough info to conduct full search and seizure
- ) Officer must have R.S. that criminal activity is a loot
Standing
If they are a victim of a broken amendment right
-violation of 4th amendment= standing to object to a search and seizure
