4th Amendment

For purposes of the Fourth Amendment, a seizure occurs when a law enforcement officer, by means of physical force or show of authority, in some way restrains the liberty of a citizen. Florida v. Bostick, 501 U.S. 429, 434 (1991). A police officer has restrained the liberty of the citizen if, “taking into account all of the circumstances surrounding the encounter, the police conduct would `have communicated to a reasonable person that he was not at liberty to ignore the police presence and go about his business.'” Id. at 437 (quoting California v. Hodari D., 499 U.S. 621, 628 (1991)).

When a law enforcement official retains control of a person’s identification papers, such as vehicle registration documents or a driver’s license, longer than necessary to ascertain that everything is in order, and initiates further inquiry while holding on to the needed papers, a reasonable person would not feel free to depart.

Read full case here: U.S. v. Chan-Jimenez, 125 F.3d 1324, 1326 (9th Cir. 1997), https://casetext.com/case/us-v-chan-jimenez/

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Kaupp was arrested within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment before the detectives began to question him. A seizure of the person within the meaning of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments occurs when, “taking into account all of the circumstances surrounding the encounter, the police conduct would ‘have communicated to a reasonable person that he was not at liberty to ignore the police presence and go about his business.”’ Florida v. Bostick, 501 U. S. 429, 437. This test is derived from Justice Stewart’s opinion in United States v. Mendenhall, 446 U. S. 544, 554, which includes, as examples of circumstances that might indicate a seizure, the threatening presence of several police officers, an officer’s display of a weapon, some physical touching of the person, or the use of language or tone of voice indicating that compliance with the officer’s request might be compelled. This Court has never sustained the involuntary removal of a suspect from his home to a police station and his detention there for investigative purposes absent probable cause or judicial authorization. The State does not claim to have had probable cause here, and an application of the test just mentioned shows that Kaupp was arrested, there being evidence of everyone of Mendenhall’s probative circumstances. A 17-year-old boy was awakened at 3 a.m. by at least three police officers, placed in handcuffs, and taken in his underwear and without shoes in a patrol car to the crime scene and then to the sheriff’s offices, where he was taken into an interrogation room and questioned. The contrary reasons mentioned by the state courts-his “Okay” response, that the sheriff’s office routinely handcuffed individuals when transporting them, and that Kaupp did not resist the handcuffs or act uncooperatively-are no answer to the facts here. Because Kaupp was arrested before he was questioned, and because the State does not claim that the sheriff’s department had probable cause to detain him at that point, his confession must be suppressed unless the State can show that it was an act of free will sufficient to purge the primary taint of the unlawful invasion. The only relevant consideration supporting the State is the observance of Miranda, but such warnings alone cannot always break the causal connection between the illegality and the confession, Brown v. Illinois, 422 U. S. 590, 603. All other relevant considerations-the temporal proximity of the arrest and the confession, the presence of intervening circumstances, and the official misconduct’s purpose and flagrancy-point the opposite way. Unless, on remand, the State can point to testimony undisclosed on this record, and weighty enough to carry its burden despite the clear force of the evidence here, the confession must be suppressed.

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On Sunday December 15, 1985 at 3:30 p.m., Deputy Sheriff Hedrick was on routine patrol in a rural neighborhood. Deputy Hedrick observed Kerr by a car parked near a barn located on a residential property. The car’s trunk was open, exposing cardboard boxes. Because he knew of several recent residential burglaries in the area, Deputy Hedrick made a U-turn, returning to the residence’s driveway. The driveway was a one lane dirt road approximately seventy to one hundred feet long. As Deputy Hedrick pulled into the driveway, Kerr was backing his car out. When he was approximately forty to fifty feet from the patrol car, Kerr left his own car and met Deputy Hedrick on foot. Without being asked, Kerr produced his birth certificate and vehicle registration and stated that he had no driver’s license. Deputy Hedrick questioned Kerr, investigated the premises and discovered a methamphetamine laboratory in the barn.

Kerr was indicted for three counts of drug offenses involving the manufacture and distribution of methamphetamine. After an evidentiary hearing, the district court denied Kerr’s motion to suppress the evidence collected as a result of his encounter with Deputy Hedrick, concluding that the encounter did not constitute a seizure within the meaning of the fourth amendment.

Not every encounter between the police and the public is entitled to fourth amendment protection. “Only when the officer, by means of physical force or show of authority, has in some way restrained the liberty of a citizen may we conclude that a `seizure’ has occurred.” Terry v. Ohio,392 U.S. 1, 19 n. 16, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 1879 n. 16, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968). Because search and seizure issues arise in a myriad of fact patterns, the Supreme Court has not defined the precise point at which a fourth amendment seizure occurs. See United States v. Ward,488 F.2d 162, 169 (9th Cir. 1973) (en banc).

Under the circumstances, Deputy Hedrick’s authority and conduct provided Kerr with no reasonable alternative except an encounter with the police. Consequently, the encounter cannot be deemed voluntary. Voluntariness presupposes a freedom of choice that Kerr did not have. The district court’s suggestion that Kerr could have backed around the car or ignored Deputy Hedrick defies common sense; Kerr’s freedom to depart was restrained at the moment Deputy Hedrick blocked the one-lane driveway.

*I accidentally said the Supreme Court in the video. This is the 9th Circuit decision. My apologies for the confusion.

U.S. v. Kerr, 817 F.2d 1384 (9th Cir. 1987)

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Following the unexpected death of Defendant Walt Shrum’s common law wife at the couple’s home around 5:30 a.m. on March 11, 2015, police officers in Kingman, Kansas “secured” the home, prohibiting Defendant access. Approximately three hours later and without access to his home, Defendant signed a consent to search form permitting an investigator from the Kingman County Sheriff’s Office (KCSO) to enter his home for the express purpose of retrieving his deceased wife’s medication in anticipation of an autopsy. While in the home, the investigator saw ammunition in plain view inside an open bedroom closet. After returning to headquarters, the investigator learned Defendant was a convicted felon and recalled seeing the ammunition in the closet. Several hours later, the investigator, based on what he had seen and learned, contacted a federal agent and asked him to obtain a search warrant for Defendant’s home. A federal magistrate judge issued the warrant at 10:00 p.m. A late night search of the home, which local authorities still would not permit Defendant to access, uncovered not only the ammunition but also two loaded firearms and 4.4 grams of suspected methamphetamine.

A grand jury subsequently charged Defendant with two counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1), one count of being a felon in possession of ammunition, again in violation of § 922(g)(1), and one count of possessing methamphetamine in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 844(a). Following the district court’s denial of his motion to suppress the incriminating evidence used to charge him, Defendant entered a conditional guilty plea to one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm. After receiving a sentence of time served, Defendant appealed the district court’s denial of his motion to suppress. Our jurisdiction arises under 28 U.S.C. § 1291. This appeal presents us with two questions: Did the initial securing of Defendant’s home constitute an unreasonable seizure in violation of the Fourth Amendment? And if so, did such seizure taint the incriminating evidence ultimately uncovered in the warrant search of his home? We answer both questions yes, and reverse.

Read full case here: United States v. Shrum, 908 F.3d 1219 (10th Cir. 2018), https://casetext.com/case/united-states-v-shrum-3

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The Supreme Court held in United States v. Jacobsen, 466 U.S. 109, 104 S.Ct. 1652, 80 L.Ed.2d 85 (1984), that a Fourth Amendment “`seizure’ of property occurs when there is some meaningful interference with an individual’s possessory interests in that property.” Id. at 113, 104 S.Ct. 1652. In Va Lerie, this court, en banc, applied Jacobsen in the context presented by this case-property entrusted to a third-party common carrier. Va Lerie, 424 F.3d at 701-03, 708 n. 9. Va Lerie presents similar facts, and, thus, this case turns on whether Va Lerie, in which the en banc court concluded that a seizure did not occur, id. at 708-09, is distinguishable from this case.

In Va Lerie, the en banc court determined that law enforcement’s detention of property entrusted to a third-party common carrier constitutes a Fourth Amendment seizure only when the detention does any of the following: (1) “delay[s] a passenger’s travel or significantly impact[s] the passenger’s freedom of movement,” (2) “delay[s] [the checked luggage’s] timely delivery,” or (3) “deprive[s] the carrier of its custody of the checked luggage.” Id. at 707.

Full case here: U.S. v. Alvarez-Manzo, 570 F.3d 1070 (8th Cir. 2009), https://casetext.com/case/us-v-alvarez-manzo-3

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Local police suspected Billy Greenwood was dealing drugs from his residence. Because the police did not have enough evidence for a warrant to search his home, they searched the garbage bags Greenwood had left at the curb for pickup. The police uncovered evidence of drug use, which was then used to obtain a warrant to search the house. That search turned up illegal substances, and Greenwood was arrested on felony charges.

Voting 6 to 2, the Court held that garbage placed at the curbside is unprotected by the Fourth Amendment. The Court argued that there was no reasonable expectation of privacy for trash on public streets “readily accessible to animals, children, scavengers, snoops, and other members of the public.” The Court also noted that the police cannot be expected to ignore criminal activity that can be observed by “any member of the public.”

Full case here: California v. Greenwood, 486 US 35 (1988), https://www.oyez.org/cases/1987/86-684

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The Fourth Amendment protects “[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.” U.S. Const. amend. IV. But individuals “subject to a warrantless, suspicionless search condition have ‘severely diminished expectations of privacy by virtue of their status alone.’ ” United States v. Cervantes , 859 F.3d 1175, 1182 (9th Cir. 2017) (quoting Samson v. California , 547 U.S. 843, 852, 126 S.Ct. 2193, 165 L.Ed.2d 250 (2006) ). Here, a condition of Dixon’s supervised release mandated that he “submit to a search of his person, residence, office, vehicle, or any property under his control … at any time with or without suspicion.”

But this authority is not limitless, and we have explained that to conduct a search of property pursuant to this condition, the individual subject to it must “exhibit[ ] a sufficiently strong connection to [the property in question] to demonstrate ‘control’ over it.” Korte , 918 F.3d at 754 (quoting Grandberry , 730 F.3d at 980 ). In other words, before the police could search Dixon’s blue Honda minivan without a warrant or probable cause, they had to have a sufficient basis to believe he owned or controlled that vehicle. In this case, the police crossed that knowledge threshold only when they inserted the key that Dixon had dropped into the car lock, thereby confirming that he exercised control over the minivan.

Therefore, we must determine whether inserting that key into the minivan’s lock was itself permissible under the Fourth Amendment. This matters because if inserting the key into the car lock violated Dixon’s Fourth Amendment rights, the officers’ resulting knowledge and authority to search that vehicle would be tainted by a Fourth Amendment violation. Given that the district court had already ruled that the officers’ search of Dixon’s apartment violated the Fourth Amendment, the officers would have lacked justification for Dixon’s arrest and subsequent stationhouse search. Thus, the trial court would have had to suppress the drugs found on Dixon’s person, and the government would have been left with no admissible drug evidence at Dixon’s trial.
…
When Officer Ochoa inserted the key into the minivan’s lock, an “effect,” he physically intruded onto a constitutionally protected area. This physical intrusion was done for the express purpose of obtaining information, specifically to learn whether Dixon exercised control over the minivan. Thus, the insertion of the key into the minivan’s lock constituted a search within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment.

Read full case here: United States v. Dixon, 984 F.3d 814 (9th Cir. 2020), https://casetext.com/case/united-states-v-dixon-292

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The Government obtained the civil forfeiture of a 1986 Dodge Ram Charger and $277,000 in U.S. currency found in this vehicle, pursuant to 21 U.S.C. § 881 (1988). Claimant Montes appeals on the ground that evidence discovered in the search of the Dodge Ram Charger should have been suppressed because it was obtained in violation of his Fourth Amendment rights. He contends that the police conduct in searching the leased Dodge Ram Charger, which was covered and parked in the backyard of a home, in order to discover the vehicle identification number (“VIN”), was a violation of his Fourth Amendment rights. The $277,000 in currency was discovered in the process and was confiscated when the narcotics-detector dog alerted on the currency. The central issue of the appeal is whether the police have a right to search a parked vehicle to obtain the VIN. Execution of the judgment has been stayed pending this appeal, pursuant to Fed. R.Civ.P. 62(d).

“Removal of the cover of the vehicle having been a search in violation of the Fourth Amendment, the evidence, which is the product of that search, must be excluded at trial. ”

Read the full case here: U.S. v. $277,000.00 U.S. Currency, 941 F.2d 898, 899 (9th Cir. 1991), https://casetext.com/case/us-v-27700000-us-currency

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“The Fourth Amendment is a vital safeguard of the right of the citizen to be free from unreasonable governmental intrusions into any area in which he has a reasonable expectation of privacy.” Winston v. Lee, 470 U.S. 753, 767, 105 S.Ct. 1611, 84 L.Ed.2d 662 (1985) (citations omitted). As the parties agree, Monghur, at least initially, held a reasonable expectation of privacy in the closed container that he stored in the closet in Wilson’s apartment. See United States v. Davis, 332 F.3d 1163, 1167 (9th Cir. 2003) (“`A person has an expectation of privacy in his or her private, closed containers’ and `does not forfeit that expectation of privacy merely because the container is located in a place that is not controlled exclusively by the container’s owner.'” (quoting United States v. Fultz, 146 F.3d 1102, 1105 (9th Cir. 1998))). The only question raised by this appeal is whether Monghur relinquished, abandoned, or otherwise waived that expectation of privacy by disclosing the handgun’s existence and location in jail telephone conversations that he knew were monitored by law enforcement.

When made to a law enforcement officer, an unequivocal, contemporaneous, and voluntary disclosure that a package or container contains contraband waives any reasonable expectation of privacy in the contents. See Pennsylvania v. Mimms, 434 U.S. 106, 108-09, 98 S.Ct. 330, 54 L.Ed.2d 331 (1977) (recognizing that “reasonableness” remains the touchstone under the Fourth Amendment).

Nothing about his jailhouse conversations with Bousley, which law enforcement later overheard, operates as a “direct and explicit” waiver of an expectation of privacy in a container hidden elsewhere. Cardona-Rivera, 904 F.2d at 1156. Monghur’s efforts to conceal the subject matter based on what he said on the phone demonstrate both an objective and subjective intention to preserve privacy — not to relinquish it. We therefore reject the Government’s position that Monghur waived his expectation of privacy in the closed container through his statements on the telephone.

To be clear, we think based on his admissions in the jail telephone conversations, coupled with Monghur’s criminal record for violence and what officers discovered when Wilson invited them to look around, Agent McCamey had probable cause to believe Monghur had a firearm stashed inside Wilson’s apartment. Exigency was not established here and is unchallenged on appeal. Therefore, we must presume that, after discovering Monghur’s possessions in the closet and identifying the green plastic container (i.e., what they reasonably believed was “the green”), agents could have sealed the apartment and presented their observations from the investigation, Monghur’s known criminal history, and Monghur’s conversations with Bousley to a neutral and detached magistrate to support a warrant application. But, we find no basis to conclude that Monghur waived his expectation of privacy in the closed container because he made an encrypted, incriminating disclosure that he was warned would be reviewed by law enforcement. Accordingly, the agents’ search of his closed container without a warrant violated Monghur’s Fourth Amendment rights.

Full case here: U.S. v. Monghur, 588 F.3d 975, 978-79 (9th Cir. 2009), https://casetext.com/case/us-v-monghur-3

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The Fourth Amendment protects “[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.” U.S. Const. amend. IV. Whether a search is reasonable will depend upon its nature and all of the circumstances surrounding it, United States v. Montoya de Hernandez, 473 U.S. 531, 537, 105 S.Ct. 3304, 87 L.Ed.2d 381 (1985), but, as a general matter, warrantless searches are unreasonable. See Cody v. Dombrowski, 413 U.S. 433, 439, 93 S.Ct. 2523, 37 L.Ed.2d 706 (1973).

Searches conducted at the nation’s borders, however, represent a well-established and long-standing exception to the warrant requirement. United States v. Ramsey, 431 U.S. 606, 619, 97 S.Ct. 1972, 52 L.Ed.2d 617 (1977); see also United States v. Flores-Montano, 541 U.S. 149, 152-53, 124 S.Ct. 1582, 158 L.Ed.2d 311 (2004). The exception applies not only at the physical boundaries of the United States, but also at the “the functional equivalent” of a border, Almeida-Sanchez v. United States, 413 U.S. 266, 272-73, 93 S.Ct. 2535, 37 L.Ed.2d 596 (1973), including the first port where a ship docks after arriving from a foreign country, United States v. Smith, 273 F.3d 629, 633 n. 8 (5th Cir. 2001). The search here, conducted as the Adventure of the Seas arrived in St. Thomas from St. Maarten, was therefore a border search.

In the case most clearly on point, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit concluded that “the search of private living quarters on a ship should require something more than naked suspicion.” United States v. Alfonso, 759 F.2d 728, 738 (9th Cir. 1985).

As a passenger of a cruise liner, Whitted had a reasonable expectation of privacy in his cabin: he excluded others from it, used it as his home, and slept and conducted his daily life therein.

Mindful of the “centuries-old principle of respect for the privacy of the home,” we, therefore, consider a search of a individual’s living quarters among the most intrusive of searches — invading as it does a place where the individual expects not to be disturbed. Wilson v. Layne, 526 U.S. 603, 610, 119 S.Ct. 1692, 143 L.Ed.2d 818 (1999); see also Georgia v. Randolph, 547 U.S. 103, 115, 126 S.Ct. 1515, 164 L.Ed.2d 208 (2006); United States v. United States Dist. Court for Eastern Dist. of Mick, 407 U.S. 297, 313, 92 S.Ct. 2125, 32 L.Ed.2d 752 (1972) (“[P]hysical entry of the home is the chief evil against which the wording of the Fourth Amendment is directed.”). Here, the search was highly intrusive on the defendant’s privacy. Uninvited and in Whitted’s absence, the officers entered his de facto home, searched through his belongings, and subjected his private space to inspection by a drug-sniffing dog.

Because of the high expectation of privacy and level of intrusiveness, the search cannot be considered “routine” and must therefore be supported by reasonable suspicion of illegal activity.

Read full case here: U.S. v. Whitted, 541 F.3d 480, 484-85 (3d Cir. 2008), https://casetext.com/case/us-v-whitted-6

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