4th Amendment Searches and Seizures Flashcards
(15 cards)
What are the requirements of a valid search warrant?
1) is issued by a neutral and detached magistrate based on probable cause,
(2) is supported by a sworn oath or affidavit, and
(3) particularly describes the place to be searched and items to be seized.
When may a defendant invalidate a warrant?
Defendant must demonstrate by the preponderance of the evidence:
1) The application contained a false statement necessary to the finding of probable cause and
2) The officer submitting the application knew the statement was false or recklessly disregarded its falsity.
Exclusionary Rule
When evidence is obtained as a result of a 4th Amendment violation (i.e. an unlawful arrest), it will be considered **fruit of the poisonous tree* and should be suppressed.
REP: Automobiles
Although, under the 4th Amendment, stopping a car constitutes a seizure of the driver and any passengers, there is a lesser expectation of privacy with regard to the automobile and its contents than with a home.
Even so, officers must have an articulable, reasonable suspicion of a violation of the law in order to stop an automobile.
Police Checkpoints
A roadblock to perform sobriety checks has been upheld, while a similar roadblock to perform drug checks has not.
What is the search warrant requirement?
When a search occurs, a warrant serves to protect a person’s privacy interest against unreasonable governmental intrusion. A valid search warrant must be:
1) Based on probable cause
2) Describe the places to be searched and seized
3) Issued by detached magistrate
Warrant Exception: Search Incident to Lawful Arrest
A warrantless search is valid if it is reasonable in scope and if it is made incident to a lawful arrest.
If the arrest is invalid, any search made incident to it is likewise invalid.
How can police justify a search of an automobile following a search incident to arrest?
In order to justify a warrantless search of an automobile incident to arrest, law enforcement must demonstrate either:
(i) that the arrestee is within reaching distance of the passenger compartment at the time of the search and may pose an actual and continuing threat to the officer’s safety or a need to preserve evidence from being tampered with, or
(ii) That it is reasonable that evidence of the offense of arrest might be found in the vehicle.
Warrant Exception: Terry Stop/Stop and Frisk
Terry stop is a limited and temporary intrusion on individual’s freedom of movement.
Stop is justified via reasonable suspicion, based on the totality of the circumstances.
Warrant Exception: Automobiles
The Fourth Amendment does not require police to obtain a warrant to search a vehicle if they have probable cause to believe that it contains contraband or evidence of a criminal activity.
The police may search anywhere in a car that they believe there to be contraband, including the trunk and locked containers, so long as they have probable cause to do so.
The search may also extend to passengers’ belongings, and any other evidence observed in plain view may also be seized.
Warrant Exception: Plain View Doctrine
In situations where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy a police officer may seize an item in plain view as long as
(i) the officer is on the premises for a lawful purpose and
(ii) the incriminating character of the item is immediately apparent.
Warrant Exception: Consent
For permission to constitute consent, the permission must be given voluntarily.
In determining whether a person’s response constitutes consent, courts evaluate the totality of the circumstances in which the response is made.
The failure by police to inform the person from whom consent is sought that she has the right to withhold consent does not invalidate the consent.
Warrant Exception: Exigent Circumstances
Police may conduct a search without a warrant when there is a reasonable chance that delay in obtaining warrant would:
1) Result in threatened safety of officer or public
2) Suspect is likely to flee/currently fleeing
3) Risk that evidence will be destroyed
Can police create exigent circumstances?
No!
However, knocking and announcing does not mean police create exigent circumstances.
Exclusionary Rule: Inevitable Discover
In the absence of a valid warrant, evidence will be admissible if evidence would have been inevitably discovered through lawful means.
EX: Police obtained a valid search warrant immediately after the unconstitutional search.
