Fourth Amendment

What protections does the 4th amendment provide?

People should be free from unreasonable searches and seizures

What is a seizure?

Any exercise of control by a government agent over a person or thing which includes arrests

When does a seizure occur?

When, under the totality of circumstances, a reasonable person would feel that they were not free to decline the officer’s requests or otherwise terminate the encounter

When does an arrest occur?

When the police take a person into custody against their will for purposes of criminal prosecution or interrogation

What does it mean for an arrest to be based on probable cause?

There are trustworthy facts or knowledge sufficient for a reasonable person to believe that the suspect has committed or is committing a crime for which arrest is authorized by law

What is probable cause for an arrest based on?

The totality of circumstances

When is a warrant required and not required for an arrest?

For arrests in public places, a warrant is not required. However, the police generally must have a warrant to effect a nonemergency arrest of a person in their home

When may officers executing an arrest warrant enter a suspect’s home?

Only if there is reason to believe the suspect is within the home

When may police bring a suspect to the station for questioning or fingerprinting against the suspect’s will?

When the police have full probable cause for arrest

When may police engage in an investigatory detention/Terry stop?

If the police have a reasonable suspicion of criminal activity or involvement in a completed crime supported by articulable facts

What is an investigatory detention/Terry stop?

When the police briefly detain a person without probable cause

When may the police frisk a detainee for weapons during a Terry stop?

If there is reasonable suspcion that the detainee is armed and dangerous

What is reasonable suspicion?

More than just a vague suspicion or hunch, but less than probable cause. Whether it is present depends on the totality of circumstances

When can police stop a car?

If they have at least reasonable suspicion to believe a law has been violated

What is required for a constitutionally valid evidentiary search?

Government conduct, a reasonable expectation of privacy, and a warrant negating the privacy

What constitutes governmental conduct?

Police officers, other government agents, or private individuals acting at the direction of the public police

privately paid police are not included unless they are deputized as officers of the public police

What are the two ways in which searches and seizures can implicate an individual’s 4th amendment rights?

Search or seizure conducted by a government agent in a constitutionally protected area in which the individual had a reasonable expectation of privacy or there’s a physical intrusion by the government into a constitutionally protected area to obtain information

What does a reasonable expectation of privacy get you?

Standing to object to a search or seizure

When does a person have a reasonable expectation of privacy automatically?

They owned to had a right to possession of the place searched, the place searched was in fact their home whether or not they owned or had a right to possession of it, or the person is an overnight guest of the owner of the place searched

What are the two core requirements for a facially valid search warrant?

Probable cause and particularity

What is probable cause when a warrant is issued?

Probable cause to believe that seizable evidence will be found on the person or premises at the time the warrant is executed

What are the main exceptions to the warrant requirement?

Search incident to constitutional arrest, automobile exception, plain view, consent, stop and frisk, hot pursuit, fleeting evidence, and emergency aid