Ch. 3 The Definition of Searches & Seizures (Q1/Midterm)

Question 1

What three questions must be addressed when analyzing 4th Amendment (search & seizure) issues?
HINT: Think flowchart

Answer 1

1) Was the law enforcement action a search or a seizure?
2) If the action was a search or a seizure, was it reasonable?
3) If the action was an unreasonable search, does the 4th Amendment ban its use as evidence?

Question 2

This is defined as some meaningful interference with an individual’s possession of property.

Answer 2

What is a seizure?

Question 3

Does the 4th Amendment apply if a law enforcement action isn’t a search or a seizure?

Answer 3

No

Question 4

Before the adoption of the 4th Amendment, what were the original 2 purposes for search & seizure laws?

Answer 4

1) Sedition
2) Tax evasion

Question 5

Which 2 enormous powers allowed English monarchs to destroy “seditious libels” and collect taxes?

Answer 5

1) General Warrant
2) Writ of Assistance

Question 6

What were the 2 conditions for lawful searches and seizures according to the Founding Fathers?

Answer 6

1) Specific dates
2) Names of places/people

Question 7

This doctrine states that there is no reasonable expectation of privacy in what officers discover by their ordinary senses i.e., plain view.

Answer 7

What is the Plain View Doctrine?

Question 8

What type of searches are plain view searches?

Answer 8

Trick question. Plain view “searches” are really NON-searches.

Question 9

What are the 2 types of plain views?

Answer 9

1) Search-related
2) Non-search-related

Question 10

What are the 2 conditions of the Plain View Doctrine?

Answer 10

1) Officers are where they have a legal right to be
2) Object/evidence’s incriminating character must be IMMEDIATELY APPARENT with ORDINARY SENSES

Question 11

This case established the Plain View Doctrine.

Answer 11

What is Arizona v. HIcks (1987)?

Question 12

This case found that using a drug-sniffing dog to sniff around a vehicle is NOT a search.

Answer 12

What is Illinois v. Caballes (2005)?

Question 13

What are the 3 unprotected places where the 4th Amendment does not apply?

Answer 13

1) Open fields
2) Public areas
3) Abandoned property

Question 14

What are the 2 conditions for abandonment?

Answer 14

1) Having physically given up possession of something
2) Having intended to give up the expectation of privacy

Question 15

What test is used to determine abandonment?

Answer 15

Totality-of-Circumstances test

Question 16

This case found that open fields consequently possess no expectation of privacy.

Answer 16

What is Oliver v. U.S.?

Question 17

The grounds immediately surrounding a home that are the site of “intimate activity” associated with the “sanctity of a man’s home and privacies of life.” These grounds are considered part of the home itself. For example, a backyard.

Answer 17

What is curtilage?

Question 18

This case defined curtilage.

Answer 18

What is U.S. v. Dunn?

Question 19

Until 1967, SCOTUS used this doctrine to define searches as officers having to physically invade a CONSTITUTIONALLY PROTECTED AREA.

Answer 19

What is the Trespass Doctrine?

Question 20

This case established the Trespass Doctrine.

Answer 20

What is Olmstead v. U.S.?

Question 21

What are the 4 constitutionally protected areas mentioned in the Trespass Doctrine?

Answer 21

1) Persons
2) Houses
3) Papers
4) Effects

Question 22

In 1967, SCOTUS succeeded (but did NOT replace) the Trespass Doctrine with this…

Answer 22

What is the Reasonable Expectation of Privacy Doctrine?

Question 23

What are the 2 prongs of the expectation-of-privacy test?

Answer 23

1) Subjective privacy
2) Objective privacy

Question 24

This case defined the Reasonable Expectation of Privacy Doctrine.

Answer 24

What is Katz v. U.S. (1967)?

Question 25

This theory states that when we knowingly reveal our incriminating secrets, we ASSUME THE RISK that our false friends will use them against us in criminal cases.

Answer 25

What is the Assumption of the Risk Theory?

Question 26

This doctrine is the basis for the Assumption of the Risk Theory.

Answer 26

What is the Third Party Doctrine?

Question 27

In this case, SCOTUS held that the 4th Amendment did not protect evidence the government obtained due to “a wrongdoer’s misplaced belief that a person to whom he voluntarily confided his wrongdoing would not reveal it.”
HINT: It’s a Third Party Doctrine Case

Answer 27

What is Hoffa v. U.S.?

Question 28

What doctrine was used to decide U.S. v. White & Lewis v. U.S.?

Answer 28

Third-Party Doctrine

Question 29

In this case, SCOTUS held that, in some circumstances, such as bootlegging alcohol, there is no reasonable expectations of privacy for bank records.

Answer 29

What is U.S. v. Miller (1976)?

Question 30

This case held that there is NO reasonable expectation of privacy for telephone numbers.

Answer 30

What is Smith v. Maryland (1979)?

Question 31

This case held that there is NO reasonable expectation of privacy for trash.

Answer 31

What is California v. Greenwood (1988)?

Question 32

What are the 3 types of statements made under electronic surveillance that have NO reasonable expectation of privacy?

HINT: Third Party Doctrine heavily influences this

Answer 32

1) Statements made by private individuals
2) Statements made to and recorded by undercover government agents
3) Statements made by individuals who didn’t know they were talking to government agents while being recorded

Question 33

In this case, SCOTUS held that the petitioner had shown no subjective expectation of privacy because he made no attempt to conceal the heat escaping his home.

NOTE: The heat came from the lamps used to provide light for the petitioner’s marijuana plants.

Answer 33

What is Kyllo v. U.S.?

Question 34

In this case, SCOTUS held that using a GPS to track and monitor a drug dealer’s Jeep (with no issued warrant) was a search that violated the petitioner’s 4th Amendment rights.

Answer 34

What is U.S. v. Jones?

Question 35

In this case, the petitioner expressed a reasonable expectation of privacy toward his private emails. He and his mother ran a company distributing male sexual enhancement supplements.

Answer 35

What is U.S. v. Warshak?

Question 36

Why is State v. Patino (2012) so different from failed reasonable expectation of privacy cases, such as Kyllo v. U.S. (thermal imaging), California v. Greenwood (trash), and Smith v. Maryland (telephone numbers)?

Answer 36

There is a subjective and objective expectation of privacy for text messages in State v. Patino (2012)

Question 37

In this case, SCOTUS ruled that the 4th Amendment is not triggered when private parties not associated with the government conduct searches and turn over what they found to the police.

Answer 37

What is U.S. v. Jacobsen (1984)?

Question 38

What doctrine did U.S. v. Jacobson create?

Answer 38

Private Search Doctrine