50 Fun Facts About Fourth Amendment

FBI agents attached a listening device to the outside of what to catch Charles Katz placing illegal bets?

A telephone booth on Sunset Boulevard was where Katz called bookmakers in Boston and Miami. The 1967 ruling stretched the amendment from property to private conversations.

In Kyllo v. United States, federal agents checked an Oregon home for marijuana grow lamps using what device?

A thermal imager showed unusual heat coming off the roof and side walls. The Court ruled that aiming one at a home, even from the street, is a search that needs a warrant.

What did police attach for 28 days to a Jeep driven by a Washington nightclub owner in United States v. Jones?

A GPS tracker logged the Jeep's movements 24 hours a day. The Court held that physically fixing it to the car was a search in its own right.

Riley v. California requires a warrant before police search the digital contents of what item seized in an arrest?

A cell phone taken from David Riley after San Diego police pulled his car over held photos and videos that were used to tie him to a gang shooting.

California v. Greenwood let police search what without a warrant once a homeowner leaves it at the curb?

Household garbage at the roadside is open to animals, children, scavengers and snoops, the Court reasoned, so sealing it in opaque bags did not keep it private.

In Florida v. Jardines, bringing what onto a suspect's front porch counted as a search requiring a warrant?

A drug-sniffing dog goes beyond the implied invitation that lets any visitor walk up to the door, the Court said. The 2013 decision was 5 to 4.

New Jersey v. T.L.O. began when a vice principal searched what item of a girl caught smoking in a school bathroom?

Her purse held cigarettes and rolling paper, then marijuana. The Court let school officials search students without a warrant and on less evidence than police need.

Cleveland police raided Dollree Mapp's home hunting a suspect in the bombing of which future boxing promoter's house?

Don King was then a Cleveland gambling racketeer. When Mapp asked for a warrant, officers showed her a piece of paper, which she snatched and tucked inside her blouse.

Terry v. Ohio approved which police practice after a Cleveland detective found pistols on men casing a store?

Stop and frisk must rest on specific facts rather than a hunch, the Court said, but it needs less evidence than an arrest does.

Tennessee v. Garner restricts when police may use what against a fleeing suspect who poses no serious threat?

Deadly force used to stop an escape counts as a seizure, the Court held, after a Memphis officer shot a 15-year-old burglary suspect at a chain-link fence.

The Fourth Amendment says no warrants shall issue except upon which standard, also required to make an arrest?

Probable cause means facts sufficient for a prudent person to believe that evidence of a crime will be found. The Constitution uses the phrase without ever defining it.

Which future president introduced the Fourth Amendment in Congress along with the rest of the Bill of Rights?

James Madison offered the amendments in 1789 to answer Anti-Federalist objections to the new Constitution. Three-fourths of the states had ratified them by December 1791.

Which colonial lawyer's 1761 attack on writs of assistance did John Adams call the spark of the Revolution?

James Otis argued for five hours on behalf of more than fifty merchants and lost. The fame still won him election to the colonial legislature.

Writs of assistance, hated in the American colonies, let British customs officers search anywhere they liked for what?

Smuggled goods could be hunted in any building under a writ, which named no particular house and lapsed only six months after the king died. The name came from its order that sheriffs and subjects assist.

In Semayne's Case of 1604, Sir Edward Coke wrote that every person's house is to him as what?

His castle and fortress, in Coke's words. The same case still accepted that royal officers could enter a home when their purpose was lawful and they held a warrant.

Which 1914 case first barred federal prosecutors from using evidence taken from a home without a warrant?

Weeks v. United States overturned the conviction of a Kansas City man for mailing lottery tickets. Its rule bound only federal courts for nearly fifty years.

Evidence derived from an illegal search goes by which metaphor, coined by Justice Felix Frankfurter?

Fruit of the poisonous tree first appeared in Nardone v. United States in 1939, though the idea behind it dates to a 1920 case involving a lumber company.

Which doctrine lets an officer who is lawfully inside a home seize contraband lying on a table without a warrant?

Plain view applies only when the officer has a right to be there and the item's criminal nature is immediately apparent, a test taken from Horton v. California.

Which doctrine from Hester v. United States lets police enter rural land beyond a home's yard without a warrant?

Open fields get no protection, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote in 1924. Sixty years later the Court applied that to Kentucky land behind a gate marked no trespassing.

Which legal term, central to Florida v. Jardines, names the area right around a house that shares the home's protection?

Curtilage is assessed by how close the area sits to the house, whether it lies inside an enclosure, how it is used and what the resident did to shield it from passers-by.

United States v. Leon lets courts admit evidence when police relied on a warrant later found invalid, acting in what?

Good faith reliance on a warrant kept the drugs in evidence in 1984, even though the warrant should never have been issued for lack of grounds.

Carroll v. United States created the automobile exception after agents searched a car on a Michigan highway for what?

Illegal liquor was hidden in the back of the car. The Prohibition-era stop came after George Carroll had failed to complete a sale to undercover officers.

In Olmstead v. United States, the Court ruled in 1928 that which tactic against a Seattle bootlegger was no search?

Wiretapping involved no trespass, the 5–4 majority said, because agents had worked from the street and an office basement without entering anyone's home.

Carpenter v. United States requires a warrant before police gather months of what data from a wireless carrier?

Location records covering 127 days tied Timothy Carpenter to a string of armed robberies at RadioShack and T-Mobile stores around Detroit.

Justice Potter Stewart wrote in Katz v. United States that the Fourth Amendment protects people, not what?

Places had been the test until then, with courts asking whether agents physically intruded. The two-part privacy test now tied to Katz came from Justice Harlan's concurrence.

State and local police are bound by the Fourth Amendment through the Due Process Clause of which later amendment?

The Fourteenth was the route the Court took in Mapp v. Ohio in 1961. As written, the Bill of Rights restrained only the federal government.

Michigan Department of State Police v. Sitz upheld which roadside stops made without suspecting any particular driver?

Sobriety checkpoints passed by 6 votes to 3, yet Michigan's own supreme court then held that they violated the state constitution, so they stayed banned there.

Maryland v. King compared which booking step for people arrested for serious crimes to fingerprinting?

A DNA cheek swab is a negligible intrusion, the 5–4 majority held, and it lets police check whether an arrestee is tied to another crime scene or victim.

Vernonia School District v. Acton let an Oregon school district require random drug tests of which group?

Student athletes had to submit to testing before they could play, and during the season 10% of them were picked at random.

In Safford v. Redding, an Arizona middle school strip-searched a 13-year-old girl while looking for which drug?

Ibuprofen at prescription strength was barred by school rules. The Court ruled 8–1 that a classmate's accusation could not justify so intrusive a search.

Which principle, extended to state courts by Mapp v. Ohio, bars prosecutors from using illegally seized evidence?

The exclusionary rule drew a famous complaint from New York jurist Benjamin Cardozo: the criminal goes free because the constable has blundered.

In Georgia v. Randolph, whose consent to search a house did the Court say could not override Scott Randolph's refusal?

His estranged wife told officers he used cocaine and led them to an upstairs bedroom. The Court held that an occupant who is present and objects prevails.

Whren v. United States lets police pull over a driver they suspect of drug crimes so long as they first observe what?

A traffic violation of any kind is a lawful basis for a stop, the unanimous 1996 Court held, even when the officer's real interest lies elsewhere.

In Florida v. Riley, a sheriff's deputy looked into a backyard greenhouse without a warrant from what, 400 feet up?

A helicopter at that height was in airspace any member of the public could lawfully use, the Court reasoned, so spotting the marijuana below was no search.

Which theory, applied in Smith v. Maryland, strips protection from information willingly given to a bank or utility?

The third-party doctrine was applied there to a pen register, a device that logged every number a robbery suspect dialed from home.

Under Chimel v. California, which part of a home may police search without a warrant when arresting someone inside?

The area within reach of the arrested person is the limit. Officers in the 1969 case had gone through Chimel's entire home looking for coins stolen from a shop.

Illinois v. Gates replaced the two-part Aguilar–Spinelli test for informants' tips with which more flexible approach?

Totality of the circumstances let a court credit an anonymous letter sent to police in Bloomingdale, Illinois, once a detective had confirmed the travel plans it described.

Which 1765 English case, over a raid on a writer's home, limited the Crown's power to search private property?

Entick v Carrington arose when royal messengers went hunting for the author of papers branded seditious; John Entick sued them for trespass and won.

Wilson v. Arkansas made which old common-law rule about entering a home part of Fourth Amendment reasonableness?

Knock and announce has been English law since at least 1604, but a 2006 ruling held that breaking the rule does not require a court to throw out the evidence found.

Which doctrine from Warden v. Hayden lets officers follow a fleeing armed robber into a house without a warrant?

Hot pursuit grew out of a 1962 Baltimore cab company robbery. In 2021 the Court ruled that chasing a misdemeanor suspect does not automatically justify entering a home.

Atwater v. City of Lago Vista upheld a Texas mother's arrest for which offense, punishable only by a fine?

Unbuckled seat belts carried a maximum fine of $50. The driver had let her children unclip theirs to hunt for a misplaced toy.

Birchfield v. North Dakota lets police demand what from a suspected drunk driver without a warrant?

A breath test may be required as part of a lawful arrest, the Court ruled in 2016, but drawing blood from the same driver still calls for a warrant.

Under a long-standing exception, where may federal officers search travelers and their bags with no warrant at all?

At international borders agents need no suspicion for a routine search either. The Congress that proposed the Bill of Rights had already let customs officers search ships without a warrant.

A valid search warrant must be issued by which neutral figure, standing between the police and the public?

A judge or magistrate has to be neutral and detached. In 1971 the Court voided a warrant that a state attorney general, who was running the murder inquiry, had authorized himself.

A warrant application under the Fourth Amendment must be supported by which formality, named in the amendment's text?

Oath or affirmation echoes the state declaration of rights John Adams drafted in 1780, which condemned any warrant whose grounds were not first sworn to.

The Fourth Amendment names persons, houses, papers and which fourth protected category, held in 2012 to include a car?

Effects means movable belongings, and in United States v. Jones the majority counted a suspect's vehicle as one.

Which justice's dissent in Olmstead v. United States championed a right to be let alone by the government?

Louis Brandeis called it the most comprehensive of rights and the one most valued by civilized men. Taft, by contrast, wrote the majority opinion he was answering.

Which conservative justice wrote the majority opinions in both Kyllo v. United States and Florida v. Jardines?

Antonin Scalia rooted both rulings in the home's historic protection, and in the 2013 case three of the Court's liberal justices joined his 5–4 majority.

Hiibel v. Sixth Judicial District Court of Nevada upheld laws requiring a detained suspect to tell police what?

Their name is a minimal intrusion, the Court reasoned in 2004, and the ruling applies only in states that have stop-and-identify statutes.

Collins v. Virginia barred an officer from entering a home's property without a warrant to inspect what under a tarp?

A motorcycle parked beside the house stayed off limits without a warrant, the Court ruled 8–1. The officer had matched it to photos on the suspect's Facebook pages.