Search and Seizure Cases

Question 1

Kansas v. Glover (2020)

Holding, Issue

Answer 1

Issue:
* Whether a police officer violates the Fourth Amendment by initiating an investigative traffic stop after running a vehicle’s license plate and learning the registered owner has a revoked driver’s license.
Holding:
* No, when the officer lacks information negating an inference that the owner is the driver of the vehicle, the stop is reasonable.

Question 2

United States v. Glover (2020)

What is reasonable suspicion?

Answer 2

“The standard depends on the factual and practical considerations of every day life on which reasonable and prudent men, not legal technicians, act.”

Question 3

United States v. Arvizu (1991)

Issue, Holding

Answer 3

Issue:
* Whether law enforcement had reasonable suspicion that Arvizu’s vehicle was involved in criminal activity to support the stop of the vehicle
Holding:
* Giving due weight to the factual inferences drawn by the law enforcement officers, there was reasonable suspicion to believe the vehicle was engaged in illegal activity
* More specifically, seemingly innocent conduct, when taken together and combined with the law enforcement officer’s experience, can justify reasonable suspicion to make a stop

Question 4

Florida v. J.L. (2000)

Issue, Holding

Answer 4

Issue:
- Whether an anonymous tip that a person is carrying a gun is, without more, sufficient to justify a police officer’s stop and frisk of that person

Holding:
- No, an anonymous tip lacking indicia of reliability of the kind contemplated in White does not justify a stop and frisk whenever and however it alleges the illegal possession of a firearm

Question 5

Florida v. J.L. (2000)

rule

Answer 5

for an anonymous tip to be enough reasonable suspicion to support a Terry stop, you need an additional indicia of reliability

Question 6

Florida v. J.L. (2000)

What do we know suffices as an indicia of reliability?

Answer 6

1. When the anonymous call provides “predictive information”
2. Not its tendency to identify a determinative person
3. When a person provides reliable tips two nights in a row and the voice sounds familiar?
4. When the informant places his identity at risk?
5. When an unnamed person driving a car stops for a moment and tells the police officer face to face that criminal activity is occurring?

Question 7

Dunaway v. New York (1979)

Issue, Holding

Answer 7

Issue:
- Whether reasonable suspicion is a sufficient basis to compel a custodial investigation of an individual

Holding:
- No, reasonable suspicion is limited to Terry Stops and is not an applicable basis for police to compel a custodial interrogation of an individual
- Probable cause required to compel custodial interrogation

Rule (from quimbee)
- Except in the case of temporary stops on the street, for which the police need only have reasonable suspicion of criminal activity, the police may only seize a citizen based upon probable cause.

Question 8

Flordia v. Royer (1983)

Issue, Holding

Answer 8

Issue:
- Whether the seizure and search of Royer exceeded the scope of stop and frisk

Holding:
- Yes, after the police officers requested Royer to accompany them to a police room, Royer followed them, and the police announced their suspicion, the stop exceeded the permissible scope of Terry

Question 9

Schneckloth v. Bustamonte (1973

Issue, Holding

Answer 9

Issue:
- Whether a “consent” to search is voluntarily given if the person consenting is not aware of his/her right to refuse to consent.

Holding:
- It depends – consent to search is valid if it is voluntarily given; meaning that the consent was not the result of duress or coercion, express or implied
- Voluntariness is a finding of fact determined by the totality of the circumstances
- Subject’s knowledge of the right to refuse is a factor, but not dispositive

Question 10

United States v. Drayton (2002)

Issue, Holding

Answer 10

Issue:
- Whether the law enforcement action on
the bus at the bus station amounted to a
stop or seizure triggering either Terry or 4th
Amendment protections

Holding:
- No, because a reasonable person in
Defendant’s situation would have felt free
to decline the officers’ requests or
otherwise terminate the encounter, the
law enforcement action did not
constitute a stop or seizure

Question 11

Pat down on a bus case, bus rule to seizures

Bostick Rule

Answer 11

Buses are different and no per se rules allowed: A person is seized dependent on
“whether a reasonable person would fee free to decline the officers’ requests or
otherwise terminate the encounte

Question 12

How to apply Bostick rule

Answer 12

use totality of the circumstances

Question 13

Rodriguez v. United States (2015)

Issue, Holding

Answer 13

Issue:
- Whether absent reasonable suspicion, may law enforcement extend a traffic stop to conduct a drug sniff

Holding:
- No, police may not extend a traffic stop to conduct a drug sniff absent reasonable suspicion to do so.

Question 14

Rodriguez v. Florida (2015)

1. Everything was consensual?

Answer 14

Would a reasonable person in Rodriguez’s situation have felt free to leave or terminate the encounter with police?

Question 15

Rodriguez v. Florida (2015)

2) Basis for Terry Stop?

Answer 15

“ a routine traffic stop is more analogous to a so call Terry Stop.” Police had reasonable suspicion to pull Rodriguez over.

Question 16

Rodriguez v. Florida (2015)

3) Scope of Terry Stop

Answer 16

“because addressing the infraction is
the purpose of the stop, it may last no longer than is necessary to effectuate the purpose. Authority for the seizure thus ends when tasks tied to the traffic infraction are – or reasonably should have been - completed”

Question 17

Rodriguez v. Florida (2015) 3 step analysis

Answer 17

1. Everything consentual?
2. Basis for Terry Stop?
3. Scope of Terry Stop?