Searches & Seizures Flashcards
What does the 4th Amendment protect?
- Protects people from unreasonable government search and seizures
And
- Requires probable cause for government search and seizures.
What does the 5th Amendment protect?
- Prohibits government coercion of confessions
- Prohibits unreliable identifications
And
- Provides privilege against self-incrimination
What does the 6th Amendment protect?
- Provides a person who is formally accused the assistance of counsel of all critical stages of the adversarial process
And
- Requires testimonial evidence be subject to adversarial testing (the confrontation clause)
How is the U.S. Constitution incorporated to the states?
The 14th Amendment.
A state statute that grants police authority to engage in conduct that violates the Federal Constitutional standard will be held?
Invalid
The 4th Amendment applies only to who?
The government.
It does not apply to private conduct.
What is the Silver Platter Doctrine and its effect?
When a private party acting on his own does not trigger the 4th Amendment when he acquires evidence that the government later seeks to introduce in a criminal prosecution.
When a private party acts at the direction of a government agent or pursuant to an official policy to search an individual, is the 4th Amendment triggered?
Any search or seizure directed by the government is subject to 4th Amendment scrutiny.
When is a person is seized as the result of government action?
When a reasonable person in his position would not feel free to leave or otherwise terminate the encounter.
When is the 4th Amendment’s reasonableness requirement triggered?
With any government seizure of a person or property.
What is the 4th Amendment protection if a reasonable person would feel free to leave or terminate a government encounter?
There is no seizure and does not trigger the reasonableness requirement.
When does a government seizure occur?
- Physical force is used to restrain a suspect
Or
- The government makes a show of authority followed by submission.
If a suspect is located in a naturally confined location (an airplane), what is the test for a seizure?
Whether a reasonable person would feel free to terminate the encounter with the government agent.
What are all arrests?
Seizures
What is a Terry Stop?
A brief investigatory seizure where the police require the suspect to interact with them.
Triggers the 4th Amendment.
What is the permissible duration of a Terry Stop?
The time necessary to confirm or deny the suspicion.
What is the effect if the suspicion prompting the Terry Stop is confirmed?
The suspicion becomes probable cause and an arrest is justified.
What is the effect if the suspicion prompting the Terry Stop is not confirmed?
The seizure must terminate.
Differentiate
Terry Stop v. Arrest
Investigation of reasonable suspicion v. Instigation of an action
What government action amounts to property being seized?
The police must take some action that results in a meaningful interference with a possessory interest.
Is property seized if police place something on the property (a tracker) that does not interfere with the owner’s use of the property?
Not seized.
What does a search triggers?
The reasonableness requirement of the 4th Amendment.
What is a search?
Any government:
- Investigatory trespass against a person or their property
Or
- Intrusion into a reasonable expectation of privacy.
What is an investigatory trespass?
Any government activity that intrudes upon a person, home, papers, or effects for the purpose of finding or gathering evidence of a crime.
A trespass qualifies as a 4th Amendment search only if the police have what intent?
Investigatory motive: actively gathering evidence of a crime.
When may a person assert his 4th Amendment rights?
Only when the government intrudes on a reasonable expectation of privacy.
What is required for a reasonable expectation of privacy?
- ∆ has a subjective expectation of privacy by making an effort to shield the thing or the activity from the public
And
- The expectation is objectionably reasonable.
A person does not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in something she knowingly?
Exposes to the public.
What is the expectation of privacy when the objects to be seized are held out to the public?
There is no reasonable expectation of privacy.
When is the police use of animals trained to detect only contraband is a search? When is it not a search?
Use of animals is a search when used in an investigatory trespass.
Use of animals is not a search at all other times (the smell is exposed to the public).
List examples of where there is not a reasonable expectation of privacy.
- Handwriting exemplars
- Voice exemplars
- Bank records
- Phone Call Records
- Sender and Recipient of Email
- Conversations the suspect believes are private that the police record with the consent of the other party to the conversation
- Open fields: unoccupied areas beyond the curtilage of the home, even if police trespass into the open fields
- Naked-eye observations of private property by air so long as police comply with flight limitations
- Aerial photography of the large fenced in area around an industrial complex
And
- Discarded property: such as commingled garbage and abandoned rental premises.
What must a search or seizure be to comply with the 4th Amendment?
It must be reasonable.
How does a warrant impact the reasonableness of a search?
It creates a presumption of reasonableness.
What must a ∆ prove to overcome the presumption of reasonableness that a warrant provides?
- The warrant was not based on probable cause
- The magistrate was not neutral or detached
Or
- The warrant failed to describe with particularity of the:
a. Thing to be seized
or
b. The place to be searched
What is a government action that uses a devices that are not in public use to see through a reasonable expectation of privacy?
It is a search.
A search or seizure without a warrant is presumptively?
Unreasonable, the government bears the burden of proving the search or seizure fell within an established exception to the warrant requirement.
What are the requirements for a valid warrant?
A warrant must be issued by:
- A neutral and detached magistrate
- Based on probable cause
And
- Describe with particularity the thing to be seized or the place to be searched.
In applying for a warrant, the information (affidavit) presented to the magistrate must provide?
Relevant facts that lead to the conclusion that:
- it is more probable than not that a person committed a crime
Or
- Evidence will be found at a locations
In applying for a warrant, the information presented to the magistrate must not be?
Stale: when enough time has passed such that the information is no longer good.
When will the method of warrant execution render the police action unreasonable?
The method of executing the warrant shocks the conscience.
What is the knock and announce rule?
Police must normally knock and announce their identity before entering a home to execute a warrant.
When do the police not need to knock and announce?
Knock and announce is not required if police have reasonable suspicion to believe that doing so will:
- Endanger officers
- Lead to the destruction of evidence
Or
- Lead to flight of the suspect.
What is the effect of a violation of the knock and announce rule?
- The police violate the 4th amendment
However
- The violation does not prompt evidence exclusion.
What is the analysis for search and seizure questions?
Step 1: Determine whether there was a search or seizure
Step 2: Ask whether there was a valid warrant
a. if so, look for facts that indicate the warrant was defective and the police acted in bad faith when they relied on it
or
b. If not, then consider whether an exception applies.
Step 3: Does the search or seizure falls into one of the established exceptions:
a. If so, the search or seizure is reasonable
b. If not, the search or seizure is unreasonable.
Without a warrant, the reasonableness of a search or seizure requires police to establish?
Individualized suspicions that amounts to either probable cause or reasonable suspicion.
When is probable cause is always required?
For a full scale intrusion to:
- Find evidence
or
- Arrest
Reasonable suspicion justifies what intrusions?
Brief investigatory seizure
or
Cursory search
Define probable cause?
Facts and circumstances that would warrant a reasonable person to conclude that the individual in question has:
- Committed a crime
Or
- That evidence of criminal activity can be found at a particular location.
Probable cause is evaluated from what standpoint?
An objective standpoint. What officer subjectively believed does not matter.
Probable cause is always required to engage in what type of search?
A full scale intrusion.
What types of evidence establish probable cause?
- Eye witness accounts
- Forensic evidence and tests
- Suspects own admissions or conduct
And
- Tips from confidential or anonymous informant.
When is a tip sufficient to trigger probable cause?
The totality of the circumstances test is used to assess the reliability of an informant’s tip to establish probable cause. The factors considered are:
- The reliability of the informant
- The basis of the informant’s knowledge
And
- Further investigation corroborates.
Define reasonable suspicion.
A reasonable belief based upon articulable information {more than a mere hunch} that the suspect has or is about to engage in illegal or criminal activity.
Reasonable Suspicion will never justify what type of search or seizure?
An arrest or a full-blown evidentiary search.
What will transform an officer’s subjective opinion into a reasonable articulable belief?
Some verifiable objective fact to support her suspicion.