Search & Seizure; Reasonableness Flashcards
Who wrote the first 10 amendments to the Constitution aka the Bill of Rights?
James Madison
Why did James Madison write the Bill of Rights?
- in response to calls from several states for greater constitutional protection for individual liberties
- they list specific prohibitions on governmental power
What were General Warrants and why did the Founding Fathers hated them?
- issued by the Brisish Crown
- allowed its bearer to search wherever or seize whomever or whatever he wished during the regin of the king, merely because of some vauge clain of disloylty
- used to suffocate political and religious dissent for centuries
- Colonists viewed them as instruments of tyranny
- state after state went on to outlaw general warrants in their consitutions, before the 4th Amendment prohibited it in the federal Constitution
4th Amedment
- right to be let alone
- any search must be justified and limited
- should be secured at at peace in your own home
- protectes from unreasonable Searches and Seizures
Reasonableness Clause
- 4th Amendment
- prohibits unreasonable searches & seizures
- the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated
Warrant Clause
- 4th Amendment
- eliminates the hated general warrant
- no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized
Who is protected under the 4th Amedment?
The people—-everyone
Government of the people, by the people and for the people
Not just “citizens” - includes slaves & disenfranchised women ALiens within the US that have developed a substantial connection with this country (US v Verdugo-Urquidez, 1990)
Who is the 4th Amedment protecting the people from?
- originally the federal government (Barron v Baltimore, 1833) then states also (Wolf v Colorado, 1949; Mapp v OH, 1961)
- government officials and agents particulary, law enforcement (police, sheriffs, troopers, special agents)
- Not Private Actors
What is being protected by the 4th Amednment?
- Security
- Liberty (privacy) and property
- persons, houses, papers, effects
What kind of warrant would I need to search persons, houses, papers, and effects?
- Arrest Warrant
- persons
- Serch Warrant
- houses
- papers
- effects
Reasonableness - Probable Cause
What is Property Interest?
The right of the people to be secure in their person, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seiures, shall not be violated in terms of property.
What does Property Interst Cover/ Not Cover?
COVERS______Private Property - home (no tresspassing) so one needs a search warrant
Not Covers_____Public Areas & Where Invited - government places; places where one is invited so no search required
Flordia v Jardines
- anonymous tip that home was being used for marijuana groth
- Police led a dog to front door to sniff and left
- dog alerted to the scent of contraband
Justice John Roberts held that the use of a trained detection dog to sniff for narcotics on the front porch of a private home is a “search,” and therefore, without consent, requires both probable cause ans a search warrant.
Summary: Dog Sniffing at front porch was an Unconstitutional Search
Define Curtilage
- a zone of habitation
- the land immediately surrounding and associated with the home and harbors the intimate activities associated with the sanctity of a man’s home and the privavies of life
(Oliver v US; US v Dunn)
What court case defined that the curtilage is part of the home for 4th Amednment purposes?
aka the 4th Amendment doesn’t apply beyond the curtilage
Flordia v. Jardines
What four measures do police look at when defining curtilage?
- proximity to home
- whether the area is within enclosure around hourse
- the nature and uses to which the area is put
- the setps taken by resident to protect the area from observation by people passing by
Collins v Virginia
US__2018
- police suspected a motocycle in Ruan Collins’ possession was stolen
- Officer drove to his house, saw a motercyle covered by tarp in driveway, and lifted the tarp to reveal license plate and vehicle identification numbers
- determined it was stolen
- Officer arrested Collins
The automobile exception does not permit the warrantless entry of a home or its curtilage in order to search a vehicle therein.
Summary: Unconstitiutional Search
Oliver v US
466 US 170 (1984)
- Ray Oliver was convicted after police w/o a warrant, drove their car onto Oliver’s property and past his house, walked past a no trespassing sign about a mile, before finding his marjuana plants
- the courts said if hikers or airplanes can see it then its beyond the curtilage
- open fields doctrine
Define Open Fields
- any unoccupied or underdeveloped area outside the curtilage (zone of habitation
- need neither by “open” or a “field”
- broad deffinition
- the government’s intrusion upn an open field is not a search in a constitutional sense
- it may be a trespass at common law
- O.F. do not provide the setting for activities that the 4th Amend. intended to shelter from government intrusion or surveillance
Liberty Interest
The right of the people to be secure in their person, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seiures, shall not be violated in terms of liberty.
What does Liberty Interest Cover/Not Cover?
- Private matters - secrets
- requires search
- right to privavy
- Public Matters
- no search required
Boyd v US
116 US 616 (1886)
- Supreme COurt held that 4th and 5th amendments taken together protect a zone of privacy
- citizens cannot be compelled to produce what the government could not search for and seize
- equivalent to an Unconstitutional Search
- later overturned but was an early landmar that articulated an important legal privacy perspective and 1st use exclusionary rule
Weeks v US
1914
- holding that evidence illegally obtained by federal officers could not be used in federal criminal prosecutions
US v Katz
389 US 347 1967
- FBI was using a electronic device to eaves drop on Charles Katz conversations in a public telephone booth
- Justice Harlan declared that these reasons give a right of privacy i the given circumstance…
- if the individual “has exhibited an actual (subjective) expectation of privacy”
- society is prepared to recognize that this expectation is (objectively) reasonable
Summary: Unconstitutional Search AND a dislinking of privacy from property
What is a Seizure?
- witin the meaning of the 4th Amend. that triggers constitutional protections
- a meaningful interference with an individual’s prossessory interest by state action
- the exercise of dominion or control by the government over a person or theing because of a violation of law
Items subject to police seizures fall into what 4 general categories?
- contraband including countefiet money
- fruits of a crime ie stolen goods
- instrumentalities of a crime
- robbery tools and weapons
- mere evidene of a crime, such as clothing containing blood, mask
Does the defendant have the right to complain?
Yes, but the burden is on the defendant by a preponderance of evidence to establish his right to contest the search or seizure
Was the search constitiutionally reasonable? Are there exceptions?
- Search Warrant = default yes
- yes there are exceptions
- probable cause
- in plain view
- consented to…
- exigency
- other good reason
- as judged by: exigency, suspicion =, intrusion/scope (given ALL the circumstances)
US v Houston
- Police mounted a camera on a utility pole on public property next to a residence
- part of image was an open field
- camera was used for 10 weeks and was used to obtain a warrant for Rocky Joe Houston for firearms possession
The 6th Circuit held that 10 week’s worth of video of what happened on a suspect’s property using a video camera on a public utility pole is not a “search” under the 4th Amendment
Constitutional
US vJones
565 US 400 (2012)
- GPS was placed on suspects car with an invalid warrant
- court unanimously held this to be a violation of the 4th amendment
- trespassory violation on the car
- prolonged surveillance to be a privacy violation (28 days)
- tracking of modern surveillance to be a privacy violation
GPS Tracker = Unconstitutional Search
US v White
401 US 745 (1971)
- James A. White was convicted of narcotics charges after talking to a friend who was wearing a concealed microphone w/o a warrant
- Not a Search = Constitutional
- b/c he lost privacy when he confided into a friend
- recorded concversation merely documented what the informant would report
Smith v Maryland
442 US 735 (1979)
- police had telephone company record numbers dialed form the telephone of Smith’s home
- U.S. Supreme Court held that the installation and use of the pen register was not a “search” within the meaning of the 4th Amendment
- all telephone users must convey their info to phone companies making the info public and not a search
- no warrant was required
- all telephone users must convey their info to phone companies making the info public and not a search
Electronic Communications Privacy Act
- 1986: Congress acknwledged that traditional 4th Amendment protections were lacking
- this act updates the Federal Wiretap Act of 1968
- addressed protections on telephone land line privacies
Stored Communications Act
SCA
- creates 4th Amednment-like privacy protection for email and other digital comunications stored on the internet
- limits the ability of the government to compel an ISP to turn over content information and noncontent information
- limits the ability of commercial ISPs to reveal content information to nongovernment entites
Carpenter v U.S.
585 US____ (2018)
- a group of robbers were caught and their cellphones seized
- SCA required FBI to obtain a warrant to access the cellphone phone number records
- they obtained reasonable grounds but not probable cause
- 5-4 split, the court ruled that the search was unconstitutional
- the ruling in Smith v Maryland could not be applied here
RIly v California
573 US 2014
- the court unanimously held that the search of a cellphone w/o a warrant was a violation of the 4th amendment
- contents of cell is both qualitatively and quantitatively different from other objects in a person’s pockets and their is time to get a warrant
What happenend in….
In the Matter of the Search of Residence in Oakland, California
The U.S. DIstrict Magistrate Judge rejected the request to compel the defendant to use his fingerprint to unlock a cellphone and permit a search of the massive data stores on the phone, not because it was an unreasonable search under the 4th Amendment, but because it violated the 5th Amednment right against self-incrimination.
