Chapter 2 Search and Seizure

1. Chapter 2Search and Seizure • Importance of Fourth and Fifth Amendments to U.S. Constitution • Applied to the states by the Fourteenth Amendment

2. Fourth Amendment • Protects: • Persons • Houses • Papers • Effects • Protects against unreasonable searches and seizures

3. First Search Question: Does the Fourth Amendment apply? • If it does not apply, then questions of reasonableness, probable cause, and warrants are irrelevant.

4. Second Search Question: If the Fourth Amendment does apply, has it been complied with? • If yes, then evidence is admissible unless excluded for other reasons. • If no, what sanctions will the court impose, e.g., exclusionary rule.

5. Common exceptions to applicability of the Fourth Amendment • Open fields • Public areas • Items in plain view • Where there is no acceptable reasonable expectation of privacy • Consent • Abandoned property

6. Sanctions where the Fourth Amendment has been violated • Exclusionary rule • Ohio v. Mapp • Purpose to deter police misconduct • Sanctions against officer • Civil actions against officer

7. Warrant Requirements • No warrant shall issue, but • Upon probable cause • Supported by oath or affirmation • Particularly describing the • Place to be searched • And the persons or things to be seized

8. General Warrant Requirements • Must be issued by a neutral and detached magistrate • As a general rule, you must get a warrant unless you can’t. • Exceptions to the above rule • Automobile searches with probable cause • Searches incident to a lawful arrest • Exigent circumstances

9. A Search • A search is defined as a governmental intrusion into an area where a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy. • The expectation of privacy must be one that society is prepared to recognize as reasonable. • Katz v. United States

10. Probable Cause for a Warrant • Probable cause—difficult to define • One definition—A set of facts that would cause a person of ordinary care and prudence to honestly believe and strongly suspect that the targeted individual may have committed a crime and there is reason to believe that certain items are present on the person or the place to be searched.

11. Fruit of the Poisonous Tree Doctrine • Evidence obtained as a result of an illegal search is inadmissible. • Derivative evidence discovered from information obtained as the result of an illegal search is also inadmissible. • The doctrine applies to searches, arrests, confessions, and other evidence-gathering activities.

12. Exceptions to the Poisonous Fruit Doctrine • Independent source • Evidence available by other legal means • Inevitable discovery • Evidence would have been discovered by other legal means

13. Automobile Searches • No warrant required • Lesser expectation of privacy to vehicles on public property and roads • Probable cause required • Vehicle on private property • Need warrant or other exception required

14. Student Searches • School officials do not need warrants unless they are acting on behalf of law enforcement. • School lockers may be searched under the auspices of a previously promulgated policy. • Reasonable searches for valid educational purposes do not need probable cause.

15. Sobriety Checkpoints • Sobriety checkpoints are reasonable. • If no unreasonable delay or no unreasonable manner in which the search is conducted. • Police conducting checks must not exercise discretion as to which vehicles they will stop.

16. Inspections and Regulatory Searches • Courts have established a reasonable legislative or administrative standard. • Standard is less than probable cause. • Courts use the balancing test. • Welfare inspections may be required as a condition to receive benefits. • Fire inspections while the firemen are on the scene are permissible without a warrant.

17. Border Searches • United States v. Ramsey • Searches at the border are per se reasonable. • A nation has the right to protect itself by searching persons entering the country. • Border searches may also be conducted in areas near the border.