Fourth Amendment

Question 1

What doe sthe 4th Amendment protect?

Answer 1

protects the people from unreasonable searches & seizures AND requires that warrants be supported by probable cause

Question 2

What does the 4th Amendment apply to?

Answer 2

• Applies to gov’t not private action

Question 3

When is a person seized?

Answer 3

When as a result of gov’t action, a reasonable person in the person’s position would not feel free ot leave or otherwise terminate the police encounter

Question 4

What is a Terry stop?

Answer 4

a “brief investigatory seizure” because police require the suspect to interact with them, therefore triggering the Fourth Amendment.

Question 5

What is an arrest?

Question 6

What is the difference between a Terry stp v. Arrest?

Answer 6

• Duration & purpose

Question 7

How is property seized?

Answer 7

When police take ocntrol of the property and interfere with the person’s possessory interest

Question 8

What is a search?

Answer 8

• Any government
  
  • (1) “Investigatory trespass” against a textual 4th Am interest (person, papers or effects) OR
  • (2) Intrusion into a reasonable expectation of privacy (REP).
• Search

Question 11

How doe sthe Fourth Amendment apply to arrests?

Answer 11

• probable cause is always required for an arrest
• no warrant needed to arrest in public so long as police have PC
• Terry stops which require reasonable suspicion can blossom into PC resulting in SITA

Question 12

What constitutes as exigent circumstances?

Answer 12

• Allows for a warrentless entry into the suspects home to arrest if:
  
  • attempt to arrest outside home but suspect flees into home
  • insufficient time to secure a warrant AND delay would allow suspect to evade arrest or destroy evience
  • the arresting officer already has PC and is in hot pursuit
  • the officer did not create the exigency to forego the warrant
  • it is a serious than minor misdemeanor

Question 13

What is required for a Terry stop?

Answer 13

• There is reasonable suspicion that a crime is afoot (has been committed by the suspect) allows for a
  
  • brief
  • investigatory seizure

Question 14

How do you estable that a crime is afoot (reasonable suspicion)?

Answer 14

• police observation or eyewitness reports
• headlong flight in a high crime area (just see police & bolt)
• informant tip + police investigation that corrobates the accuracy of the informant’s predictions
  
  • tip does not have to be insider information
  • if it is just existing info w/o predicition, it is not allowed

Question 15

What can the police request during a Terry stop?

Answer 15

• A suspect’s name & id so long as
• request has an immediate relation to the purpose of the stop

Question 16

What is the permissible scope of a Terry stop?

Answer 16

• the timerequired to act in due diligence to confirm or deny the suspicion
• if police in addition had a subjective belief which is irrelevant, this does not make the stop illegal
  
  • they only must have an objective belief that the suspect was engaged in or about to engage in criminal activity

Question 17

What is required for seizure of property?

Answer 17

• a warrent is required to justify seizure of property
• no warrant required if it is in the officer’s plain view
  
  1. the police are in a lawful vantage point to observe the item
     
     • officer does not have to conduct a search to observe it
  2. incriminating nature of item is immediately apparent
  3. officer has lawful access to the point of seizure
     
     • (officer may reach for the item to take w/o committing a search)

Question 18

What is the plain view doctrine?

Answer 18

No warrant required for a seizure when:

1. the police are in a lawful vantage point to observe the item
   
   • officer does not have to conduct a search to observe it
2. incriminating nature of item is immediately apparent
3. officer has lawful access to the point of seizure
   
   • (officer may reach for the item to take w/o committing a search)

NOTE - it is an exception ot the warrant requirement

NEVER justifies a warrantless search for contraband

Question 19

How does the the 4th Amendment apply to searches when there is a warrant?

Answer 19

• ALLOWS:
  
  • police authority to search named places or persons
    
    • right to detain people in the house
      
      • BUT not their person UNLESS they are named in warrant
• SCOPE
  
  • limited to premises descriped in warrant
• Plain View
  
  • applies
• NONSUSPECT OWNED AREA
  
  • need to obtain a warrant

Question 20

What are the exceptions to a warrant?

Answer 20

• Search Incident to Lawful Arrest (SITLA)
• Automobile Exception
• Special Needs Doctrine
• Consent
• Hot Pursuit
• Exigent Circumstances
• Terry Search (Frisk)
• Administrative Searches

Question 21

What is a search insident to a lawful arrest (SITLA)?

Answer 21

• following a lawful arrest can search the area w/in the arrestee’s immediate control )wingspan)
• TRIGGERED by
  
  • lawful arrest
    
    • so long as the law authorize arrest for the offense
    • BUT NOT for a citation even if it is an offense that is arrestable
• SEARCH
  
  • must be contemporaneous w/arrest
  • rare cases, it my proceed arrest slight if arrest was inevitable

Question 22

What is the scope of SITLA when the arrest is in the home?

Answer 22

• You can search the the area w/in lunging distance but not the entire house
• BUT if police have reasonable suspicion that there are others in the home that may put them at risk,
  
  • can conduct a cursory protecticve sweep
  • called a Terry Sweep - limited to places where a person can hide

Question 23

What is the effect of SITLA when in a vehicle (or immediately exit)?

Answer 23

• if the arrestee has genuine access to the interior of the vehicle after arrest
  
  • SITLA extends to the interior of the car AND
  • all the containers w/in the interior
• if the arrestee does not have access to the interior of the vehicle after arrest
  
  • SITLAS permitted ONLY IF police have reasonable belief that evidence related to the crime of arrest is in the car

Question 24

Hypo for SITLA

Officer Smith is executing an arrest warrant for Jerry. He knocks on Jerry’s door and is let in. He pats Jerry down and searches the closet and dresser in the room. Jones does not believe anyone else is in the home. He then goes up the stairs and searches all the rooms on the second and third floors. On the third floor, he finds a stockpile of automatic weapons and explosives. Is this an illegal search?

Answer 24

Tes this is an illegal search b/c

• officer had an arrest warrant not a search warrant
• can search w/in lunge area
• no reason to believe a Terry sweep was needed since did not believe others at hope
• exlcude as fruit of the poisonous tree

Question 25

What is the automobile exception to the warrant requirement?

Answer 25

* can search automobile (self-propelled vehicle) so long as have PC * inherent moblity AND * reduced expectation of privavcy due to gov't regulations on roads * Applies to all containers in the vehicle * vehicle may be seized, moved to an impound lot & searched later * even if there was sufficient time to get a warrant bet seizing & searching * Scope dictated by the PC of where in the vehicle can they search * Immobile vehicles require a warrant - parked away from roads, etc. * a citation stop can lead to PC & warrantless search allowed w/in scope

Question 26

What is the Special Needs Doctrine exception to a warrantless search?

Answer 26

* Where police will be unable to protect usfrom an imminent danger if they have to first establish PC or RS * VALID - to protect from immediate danger * i.e. - sobriety checkpoints, recently escaped prisoners, counter-terrorism, * INVALID - to find evidence of a crime * REQUIREMENTS: * Based on a fixed formula so not the individual officer discretion * scope to address a specific threat * conducted in location/manner to min. citizen anxiety

Question 27

What can be seized under the special needs doctrine?

Answer 27

any contraband that comes into plain view while searching within the scope of the special needs inspection: even if the contraband is unrelated to the public safety concern NOTE - police cannot randomly stop vehicles to check license & registration

Question 28

What is the border exception to the special needs doctrine?

Answer 28

Customs officials may, with no suspicion or cause, as an incident of national sovereignty: (i) Stop vehicles at permanent checkpoints located at or near the border (ii) Conduct "routine" searches of people and property.

Question 29

What is the effect of the special needs doctrine to evidence found?

Answer 29

* If the special needs stop was: * REASONABLE (for calid reasons) * any subsequent search or seizure will be unaffected by the stop, even if the evidence is unrelated to the special need. * UNREASONABLE * any evidence it leads to will be tainted by the stop.

Question 30

**HYPO - Special Needs** Angela is stopped at a sobriety checkpoint. Officer Jones stands near the driver’s side window and asks Angela for her license and if she has been drinking. While Angela is answering, through the passenger window Jones sees the end of a bong sticking out of a bag. Officer Smith then has Angela step away from the car. He takes the bag from the car, seizes the bong, and searches the contents of the bag. Inside the bag he finds felony amounts of marijuana. Is the seizure of the bong and the marijuana reasonable?

Answer 30

Seeing the bong, that creates PC and since it is a vehicle, now that he has PC, he does not need a warrant to search the bag where he saw the nobg. All containers in the automobile can be searched if there is PC. Had PC b/c bong was in plain view

Question 31

What is the rule for consent as an except to the warrant requirement?

Answer 31

* Consent an exception to both Warrant & PC * officer can ask for consent even if it is just based on a hunge * Any evidence obtain in the plain view of the scope of that consent is admissible under plain view doctrine * Individual can limit the scope of consent BUT it must be * clearly expressed prior to the officer finding the evidence * CONSENT must be * knowing * voluntary - based on the totality of circumstances * IMPLIED in some cases - airplane or reguilated business

Question 32

When is consent invalid to the warrant (&PC) exceptions?

Answer 32

* if it is obtained by asserting a fake warrant, fraudulently, under duress, or pursuant to an unlawful police threat * Police officer not required to inform you that you can refuse NOTE - if consent is obtained following an unlawful seizure, the unlawful seizure is a poison tree that taints the consent and any evidence to which it may lead.

Question 33

How does third-party consent effect the warrant requirement?

Answer 33

* any person who has joint control or use may consent * evidence seized in plain view may be used against both * consent applies to common areas * does not apply to private areas exclusively in defendant's control * police officer reliance on a third pty consent is reasonable so long as the 3rd pty had actual authority OR * a reasonable officer would believe the person had actual authority to give consent

Question 34

What third parties are unable to consent?

Answer 34

* landlord for a tenant * hotel for a guest * an employer to an employee's private storage area * if co-occupants, if the other is present at the time, they can negate consent even if the other gave consent

Question 35

What is the rule for hot pursuit as an exception to the warrant requirement?

Answer 35

* lawful when police are in actual hot pursuit of the suspect to apprehend him - no warrant * police may enter private dwelling while in hot pursuit even if not that of the suspect * police may execute a warrantless arrest of suspect on the premisies * police may seize any contraband in plain view pursuant to hot pursuit entry

Question 36

What is required for exigent circumstances as an exception to a warrant requirement?

Answer 36

*