The Fourth Amendment: Search and Seizure

Vocabulary terms and definitions covering the Fourth Amendment, warrants, probable cause, and various search and seizure exceptions.

Fourth Amendment

Constitutional amendment that protects the right of people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures.

Search

The process of looking through a place or thing or examining a person in the hopes of locating something.

Seizure

The process of taking possession of a person or object, such as taking evidence, contraband, or arresting a person.

Warrant

A document signed by a judge authorizing police to conduct a search or seizure, certifying that there is probable cause to justify it.

Probable Cause

Facts and circumstances that indicate there is sufficient evidence to reasonably believe a crime has been or will be committed.

Reasonable Suspicion

A suspicion based on specific and explainable facts; it is the standard for stopping someone to further investigate but is less than probable cause.

Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

The legal standard required for convicting someone of a crime, which is higher than probable cause.

Affidavit

A sworn written statement submitted by police to a judge containing facts they believe establish probable cause for a search or arrest.

Franks Hearing

A hearing requested to determine the truthfulness of statements made by an officer in a search warrant application.

Search Warrant

A warrant requesting permission to conduct a search of a person or property, typically including a request to seize relevant contraband or evidence found.

Arrest Warrant

The term used for a warrant to seize a person, specifying who may be arrested and for what crime.

Knock and Announce

A procedure where officers are required to announce their presence before entering a home to execute a warrant, unless doing so would be unsafe.

Consent Exception

An exception to the warrant requirement where the owner agrees to a search or seizure; no probable cause is necessary.

Plain View Exception

An exception allowing police to seize illegal items without a warrant if they are legally in an area and the items are visible in the open.

Protective Sweep

A brief scan of the area nearby for possible sources of danger (like weapons or harmful individuals) when police are legally on private property.

Terry Frisk

A general pat down of an individual's outer clothing to feel for weapons when an officer reasonably believes the suspect may be armed and dangerous, authorized by Terry v. Ohio.

Automobile Exception

A warrant exception allowing police to search a vehicle if they have probable cause to believe it contains evidence and the vehicle could be driven away.

Incident to Arrest

An exception allowing police to search an arrested person and the area within their reach for safety purposes; no additional probable cause for the search is needed beyond the arrest itself.

Vehicle Inventory

A search conducted to list the contents of an impounded vehicle to ensure nothing is missing when returned; no additional probable cause is required.

Exigent Circumstances

Circumstances where safety would be compromised by the time it takes to get a warrant, such as providing aid, preventing evidence destruction, or hot pursuit.

Exclusionary Rule

A rule stating that evidence obtained in violation of the Fourth Amendment is considered 'fruit of the poisonous tree' and must be thrown out.

Inevitable Discovery

A federal exception to the Exclusionary Rule where improperly obtained evidence is allowed if it would have been found anyway through legal means.

Attenuation

A federal exception to the Exclusionary Rule where the improper conduct is far removed from the gathering of evidence or separated by an intervening factor.

Independent Source Doctrine

A federal exception where evidence is allowed because police would have sought a warrant to properly search or seize the object regardless of improper conduct.

Good Faith Exception

The only exception to the Exclusionary Rule applied in Texas, allowing evidence if police and a neutral judge acted on a warrant they legitimately believed was valid.

Standing

The legal requirement that a person's own privacy rights must have been violated for them to challenge a Fourth Amendment violation.

Mapp v. Ohio

U.S. Supreme Court case holding that Fourth Amendment requirements apply to the states through the 14th Amendment.