03 - The Fourth Amendment

Factors Used to Distinguish Curtilage from Open Fields

1. Is areas within a fence or other enclosure sorrounding a home. 2. The proximity to the area of the house and nature of use (mowed and kept). 3. Steps taken by resident to protect area from observation.

Hunch

A feeling that something is wrong, or illegal, even though you do not have any evidence to prove it (a gut feeling).

Search

A government action that infringes on a person's reasonable expectation of privacy.

Administrative Justification

A standard used to support certain regulatory and special needs searches. Created by the Supreme Court, it adopts a balancing approach, weighing the privacy interests of individuals with the interests of society in preserving public safety.

No Reasonable Expectation of Privacy

Abandoned property, drug dogs in public areas, CCTV in public areas, tracking/surveilling in public areas, open fields, when information given voluntarily to informants or undercover officers

Government Action

Action on the part of paid government officials, usually police officers.

Katz v. United States

Court held that bugging evidence from phone booth could not be used against defendant; 4th Amendment protects "persons, not places,".

California v. Greenwood

Court held that it is not an unreasonable search and seizure to obtain evidence without a warrant from garbage left for collection outside the grounds of a home.

Burdeau v. McDowell

Court ruled 4th Amendment guarantees apply only to government searches and seizures, NOT to searches by private individuals

Coolidge v. New Hampshire

Court ruled a neutral and detached magistrate cannot be involved in conducting the investigation

Terry v. Ohio

Court ruled all that is needed for a stop and frisk is reasonable suspicion, which is more than a hunch but less than probably cause... rationale is for safety of officer as the only item that can be found this way is a weapon.

California v. Ciraolo

Court ruled it is not an unreasonable search for the police, without a warrant, to conduct surveillance of a fenced backyard from a private plane flying at 1,000 feet.

Vernonia School Disctict v. Acton

Court ruled that a student can be kept from participating in voluntary school athletics if he or his parents fail to consent to a drug test

United States v. Dunn

Court ruled that for Fourth Amendment purposes, the area surrounding a barn that is 50 yard away from the fence surrounding a house is not within the house's curtilage.

Illinois v. Gates

Court ruled that in establishing probable cause a judge may make a commonsense decision, given all the circumstances set forth in an affidavit, whether there is a fair probability that contraband can be found in a particular place.

California v. Hodari

Court ruled that in order for a seizure to have occurred there must either be some application of physical force, even if extremely slight, or a show of authority to which the subject yields.

Florida v. Riley

Court ruled that surveillance of the interior of a partially covered greenhouse in a residential backyard form a helicopter at 400 feet does not constitute a "search" for which a warrant is required under the Fourth Amendment.

Hoffa v. United States

Court ruled that voluntarily conveyed information to a "false friend" (informant) is no protected by 4th Amendment

United States v. Knotts

Court ruled that when police use of enhanced surveillance capabilities to monitor areas where there is no legitimate expectation of privacy does not violate the Fourth Amendment.

Kyllo v. United States

Court ruled that where the government uses a device that is not in general public use to explore details of the home that would previously have been unknowable without physical intrusion, the surveillance is a "search" and is presumptively unreasonable without a warrant. (Thermal Imager Case)

Oliver v. United States

Court ruled the "open fields" doctrine permits police officers to enter and search a field without a warrant even if the field.

Articulable Facts

Events that are witnessed and can be explained. Contrast articulable facts with hunches and guesses. Articulable facts are necessary for establishing probable cause.

Probable Cause

Facts and circumstances known to an Officer, based upon reasonably trustworthy information that is sufficient in itself to warrant a person of reasonable caution to believe that a particular person committed a crime or that seizable property or evidence will be found in a particular place.

Soldal v. Cook County

Fourth Amendment protects property as well as privacy interests, even absent a search or an arrest (e.g. eviction)

Required for 4th Amendment to Apply

Government Action and Infringment on individuals reasonable expectation of privacy.

Reasonable Suspicion

If there are facts that can be articulated by the police officer that would lead a reasonable person to conclude that criminal activity is afoot. More than a hunch, much less than traditional probable cause.

Open Field Doctrine

Officers are permitted to search and sieze evidence, without a warrant, on private property beyond the area immediately surrounding curilage of a house.

Reasonable Expectation of Privacy

Standard developed for determining whether a government intrusion of a person or property constitutes a search because it interferes with individual interests that are normally protected from government intrusion.

Reasonableness Clause

The first part of the Fourth Amendment; "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated..."

Warrant Clause

The second part of the fourth amendment: "...and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

Curtilage

What is generally considered to be that area of open space surrounding a dwelling, which is so immediately adjacent to the dwelling that it is part of the house?

Reasonableness

When evaluating questionable police action, it is first necessary to determine whether the Fourth Amendment applies. If it does, then we ask, "Did the police act in line with Fourth Amendment requirements?" This question is concerned with the reasonableness of the action in question.

Seizure of a Person

when an officer, by means of physical force or a show of authority, intentionally terminates or restrains the subject's freedom of movement (Would a reasonable person feel free to disregard the officer?)

Seizure of Property

when there is some meaningful interference with an individual's possessory interest in some form of property.