Searches Flashcards
“open fields” doctrine
Real property (open land) is not protected under the 4th amendment. There’s no reasonable expectation of privacy in an open field.
Curtilage
The area immediately surrounding the home and subject to the Dunn Test to identify level of protection it will have against unlawful searches
Aerial Surveillance
Aerial observation of a home’s curtilage is not a search if the curtilage is visible from the public navigable airspace.
Thermal Imaging of Home
When police use a thermal imager or a similar device that is not in general public use to explore details of the home that would previously have been unknowable without a physical intrusion, the surveillance is a “search” and is presumptively unreasonable without a warrant
Trash
A search does not occur when police gather and sort through an individual’s trash left for collection outside the curtilage of a home.
Tracking Devices (public movements)
A search does not occur when police install an electronic tracking device on property that does not yet belong to the defendant and then use the devise, once in the defendant possession, to reveal information regarding his public movements that could also be obtained through ordinary visual surveillance. A person traveling on public thoroughfares has no reasonable expectation of privacy in his movements from one place to another.
Tracking Devices (private residence)
A search does occur when police use an electronic tracking device to obtain information about the interior of a private residence that they could not have obtained by observation from outside the curtilage. Private residences are places in which the individual normally expects privacy free of governmental intrusion not authorized by a warrant, and that expectation is one that society is prepared to recognize as reasonable.
Pen Registers
The use of a pen register installed on telephone company property to record the numbers dialed from an individual’s telephone is not a search. An individual does not generally expect the numbers he dials to remain secret, nor is it reasonable to expect privacy in information voluntarily disclosed to third-party telephone companies whose equipment completes the call.
Drug dogs (Luggage)
the use of a narcotics detection dog to sniff a traveler’s luggage in a public airport does not constitute a search under the fourth amendment. (no legitimate interest in possessing contraband)
Drug dogs (Traffic Stop)
The use of narcotics detection dog to sniff an individual’s vehicle during a lawful (justified at its inception) traffic stop does not constitute a search under the fourth amendment as long as the sniff does not prolong the traffic stop. However, the use of a drug dog to sniff an individual’s car after the completion of a lawful (justified at its inception) traffic stop constitutes an unlawful seizure under the fourth amendment
Drug dogs (Home)
The use of a narcotics detection dog to investigate the home and its immediate surroundings is a search within the meaning of the 4th amendment. The home and the curtilage are constitutionally protected areas
Search w/o a warrant
must have probable cause and reasonable suspicion
Jones Test
A search occurs when government physically intruding on a constitutionally protected area (person, home, papers, effect) for the purpose of obtaining information.
Katz Test
Police perform a “search” within the meaning of the fourth amendment when they intrude into an area in which:
• The defendant exhibits an actual, subjective expectation of privacy, and
• Society is prepared to recognize that expectation as reasonable
