Chapter 3-Introduction to the Fourth Amendment

California v. Greenwood

A citizen has no expectation of privacy in their garbage left on the curb; therefore, the Fourth Amendment is not implicated.

Hoffa v. United States

A government agent posing as a union official did not violate T's Fourth Amendment rights when T's invited the agent to his hotel room and voluntarily conversed with the agent.

California v. Ciraolo

Aerial surveillance or a "flyover" from a fixed-wing aircraft or helicopter does not constitute a search .

Reasonable expectation of privacy

An expectation of privacy that society (through the eyes of a judge) is prepared to accept as reasonable. For a search to occur, a reasonable expectation of privacy must be infringed upon by a government actor.

Open field

Any unoccupied or undeveloped real property falling outside the curtilage of a home. Oliver v. United States

Probable cause (for arrest)

Evidence of a fair probability that the suspect has or is about to commit a crime.

Search

For Fourth Amendment purposes, a government action that infringes on one's reasonable expectation of privacy.

Reasonable suspicion

Justification that falls below probable cause but above a hunch. Reasonable suspicion is a court-created justification; it is not mentioned in the Fourth Amendment. It is necessary for police to engage in stop-and-frisk activities.

United States v. Knotts

Placing a tracking device on a container and tracking the container does not implicate the Fourth Amendment. The court, in this case, reasoned that, "a person traveling in an automobile on public thoroughfares has no reasonable expectation of privacy in his movements from one place to another.

Vernonia School District v. Acton

Searches such as random urinalysis for student athletes are reasonable under the Fourth Amendment because public school athletes enjoy a lesser expectation of privacy because they voluntarily participate in sports.

Illinois v. Gates

The Supreme Court abandoned the two-prong Aguilar test and replaced it with a totality of the circumstances test.

Curtilage

The area to which extends the intimate activity associated with the sanctity of a man's home and the privacies of life. See Oliver v. United States

Aguilar v. Texas

The court held in this case that an affidavit based on an informant's tip must show two things: 1) sufficient information to demonstrate how the informant reached his or her conclusion and 2) sufficient information to establish the informant's reliability.

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..."

Terry v. Ohio

This case established that police may stop and frisk suspects if they have reasonable suspicion of criminal activity.

United States v. Place

This case held that drug dog sniffs in public areas do not constitute a search under the Fourth Amendment.

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 property

A seizure of property occurs when "there is some meaningful interference with an individual's possessory interest in that property." See United States v. Jacobsen

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.

Government action

Action on the part of paid government officials, usually police officers. Government action is one of two requirements (the other being infringement on one's reasonable expectation of privacy) that must be in place for a Fourth Amendment search to occur

Spinelli v. United States

In this case, the court clarified its holding in Aguilar v. Texas. The court stated that the first prong (sufficient information to demonstrate how the informant reached his/her conclusion) can be overcome if the tip describes the accused's criminal activity in sufficient detail that the magistrate knows that he is relying on something more substantial than a casual rumor or the person's general reputation.

Seizure of a person

Occurs when a police officer, by means of physical force or show of authority intentionally restrains an individual's liberty in such a manner that a reasonable person would believe that he or she is not free to leave. See Terry v. Ohio; United States v. Mendenhall

Factors that may help establish probable cause

Prior record, flight from the scene, suspicious conduct, admissions, incriminating evidence, unusual hour, suspect resembles the perpetrator, evasive and untruthful responses to questions, obvious attempts to hide something, presence in a high-crime area or near a crime scene, furtive gestures, and knowing too much (volunteers information that only the perpetrator would know).

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 person or things to be seized."

Katz v. United States

This case held that the Fourth Amendment protects people, not places and so its reach "cannot run upon the presence or absence of a physical intrusion into any given enclosure." Government agents who stood outside a phone booth and listened to x's phone call violated x's right to privacy and constituted a "search and seizure."