Criminal Procedure

Case Rules

Arizona v. Gant

Tompkins: Police have the right to search the passenger compartment of a vehicle incident to the arrest of an occupant of the vehicle if he has access to it or if the police reasonably believe that the vehicle contains evidence of the crime arrested for.

Camara v. Municipal Court of City and County of San Francisco

  • Administrative searches of people's homes are not valid under the Fourth Amendment without a warrant or consent.

  • Probable cause exists for an administrative search if reasonable legislative or administrative standards for conducting such inspection are satisfied for the dwelling. Such standards are reasonable if they are based on the passage of time, the nature of the building, or the condition of the area.

Fernandez v. California

A warrantless search is valid under the Fourth Amendment when consented to by a occupant if no non-consenting residents are physically present.

Georgia v. Randolph

A warrantless search is not permitted under the Fourth Amendment by one occupant's consent when another occupant is present and refuses to permit the search.

Illinois v. Lafayette

Routine inventories of a person's personal effects at booking subject to standard police procedure are reasonable under the Fourth Amendment.

Katz v. United States

Electronic surveillance constitutes a search under the Fourth Amendment when conducted on a person where he has a reasonable expectation of privacy, even if there was no physical trespass.

Maryland v. Buie

To conduct a protective sweep, an officer must only have "a reasonable belief based on specific and articulable facts that the area to be swept harbors an individual posing a danger to those on the arrest scene."

New York v. Burger

For a warrantless administrative search of a closely regulated business to be valid:

  1. There must be a substantial government interest that informs the regulatory scheme pursuant to which the inspection is made.
  2. The warrantless inspections must be "necessary to further [the] regulatory scheme."
  3. "[T]he statute's inspection program, in terms of the certainty and regularity of its application, [must] provid[e] a constitutionally adequate substitute for a warrant."
    • It must:
      1. Advise the property owner that the search is being made pursuant to the inspecting officers and has a properly defined scope
      2. Limit officer discretion

Oliver v. United States

See:

Open Field Doctrine

Powell v. Alabama

In a capital case, it is a violation of a defendant's due process rights to not give him time and opportunity to secure counsel.

Schneckloth v. Bustamonte

Whether consent was voluntary or coerced can only be determined by analyzing all the circumstances of such consent.

South Dakota v. Opperman

Routine inventories subject to standard police procedure are reasonable under the Fourth Amendment.

United States v. Jones

Installing a GPS device on a target's vehicle and using it to monitor his movement constitutes a search under the Fourth Amendment.