The 4th Amendment to the United States Constitution protects you from illegal police searches or seizures. If the police violate the rule while collecting evidence, the exclusionary rule prevents them from using the evidence against you. Your defense lawyer should help in ensuring the court suppresses that evidence.

An Overview of the Fourth Amendment

The 4th Amendment to the United States Constitution outlines the search-and-seizure laws. The laws provide every citizen the right to be exempt from unlawful searches or seizures.

Generally, you, the defendant, are safeguarded against illegal searches or seizures of assets in which you have a rational expectation of privacy.

Examples of assets or spaces in which you have a legal expectation of privacy that safeguards from searches or seizures are as follows:

  • Their house
  • Their electronic devices, like computers and cell phones
  • Tarp or tent
  • Hotel rooms
  • Personal assets that students carry to the educational institution

There are also properties that the court has ruled that you, the defendant, do not have an expectation of privacy in, including the following:

  • Assets that you have abandoned
  • Parts of a stolen motor vehicle
  • Assets inside a car, if you are a passenger and does not possess or have an interest in the property or the car

Having a legal expectation of privacy in an asset does not imply that law enforcers cannot seize or search your property. It implies that the police can only act so, provided you have a warrant or any of the exemptions to the search warrant guidelines apply.

Defining the Search Warrant

Most searches and seizures are legal when executed with a valid warrant.

A federal or state judge authorizes the search warrant, granting police the entitlement to seize or search items that could be evidence that you have committed a felony or could be proof that a felony has been committed.

A valid search warrant should be grounded on probable cause. It should also describe where the police should search and the asset you should search for. Probable cause is the legal standard that requires police to have adequate factual proof to believe that an offense has been committed before obtaining a warrant, performing the search, or making an arrest.

Fighting a Seizure or Search that a Warrant Authorizes

Not every seizure or search performed with a warrant is constitutional. You can successfully suppress the evidence from a police search even when the police performed the search with a search warrant if any of the following is correct:

  • The warrant was invalid or defective
  • The search surpassed the search warrant's scope, or obtained proof that the warrant had not described

Some of the reasons that can make a police search warrant defective or invalid are as follows:

  • Police misconduct where the officer intentionally misled the court about the case circumstances justifying the search warrant
  • The judge issuing the search warrant was prejudiced
  • The warrant did not specify the form of proof the police should search for or the space the police should search

Exemptions to Search and Seizure Laws under the 4th Amendment to the Constitution

Some seizures or searches of assets or spaces in which you have a legal expectation of privacy are lawful even when executed without a search warrant, provided they fall within an exemption from the search warrant requirement.

The section below discusses warrant exceptions applicable to different properties and places.

Exception for a Search of Your Home or Residence

Law enforcers can get into and search a home, trailer, or apartment without a search warrant if any of the circumstances below are correct:

  • You consented to the search
  • There existed an emergency situation, such as an imminent risk to life, the hot pursuit of a fleeing suspect, or the imminent destruction of criminal evidence
  • The search occurs in connection with a lawful arrest, and the police are conducting it to protect evidence that a person might destroy or to protect the security of the police officers.

Although without a valid search warrant, the police can search a home provided they have permission, there are limits on the capability to search the house, including the following:

  • Authority to give permission—Consent to search your home should originate from an individual with the authority to grant it. The consenting individual need not be the one who will be prosecuted for the offense. It could be any person entitled to enter or utilize the asset. Consent to your home search could be invalid even when the consenting person did not have the power to grant permission, provided that the law enforcers reasonably think that the person has authority. It is known as "apparent authority" to give permission. Nevertheless, a law enforcement officer cannot perform a warrantless search of your home if an individual with authority over your home has given permission, but you are at your home and have refused to consent to the search.
  • Scope of the consent —Because you have allowed police officers to search parts of your home without a search warrant, that does not imply that you have permitted the police to search all parts of the home. The law enforcers should limit the search to spaces within your consent.
  • The consent should be voluntary — For consent to the warrantless police search of the home to be valid, you should grant it voluntarily. Your consent cannot authorize a warrantless home search if you consent at gunpoint. Additionally, you are not considered to have permitted your home search if the police order you to open the door and you obey, or if law enforcement tells you they have a search warrant for your house and later discover it was false.
  • You can withdraw your consent—Even when you first consent to the search of the home with a search warrant, you can reconsider your decision and withdraw the consent at any time. In that case, further searches of your home become invalid.

Exemption to Search Your Car

Police can conduct a warrantless search of your car if one of the circumstances below is correct:

  • You gave the police consent to search your car—You should give consent voluntarily and freely. If you allow the police to search the car and they find proof of an offense, they can use the proof against you.
  • Law enforcement has a reasonable belief that the vehicle contains evidence of an offense or contraband — The police should search your motor vehicle if they have probable cause to believe it contains evidence of an offense or contraband. Typically, the police have probable cause when they are aware of specific circumstances of the case, and if they present the facts to the court, the judge will issue a search warrant to the police. If the law enforcers have probable cause for your car search, they can search the car. However, regarding your car's trunk, the police can search it only if they have probable cause to believe it contains seizable items.
  • The law enforcers are arresting a person inside the car —The police can only perform a search related to the arrest when they have probable cause to think the vehicle has weapons or contraband. Even if the police have probable cause, they should perform their search at the arrest scene and in the presence of the arrestee. The search should also be restricted to the region where you, the suspect, can destroy evidence or reach for a firearm.
  • The police can also search you if they have detained you in your car through a Terry Stop to safeguard their safety. After detaining you, the police will search the car if they believe an individual in the vehicle is hazardous and has a firearm, and their search entails a region where the person has hidden the weapon.
  • Police can conduct a warrantless search of a vehicle that is impounded. Nonetheless, the search should occur only if police conduct it to obtain a list of items in the car, the police officer is not using the search as a fishing expedition, and the police perform the search in accordance with police department policies. The 4th Amendment to the Constitution authorizes the search of a car because the police search safeguards the car's contents, protects the police from risk, and assists in defending against trivial claims for lost assets.

Exemptions to Computer Search

The police can conduct a warrantless search of your electronic device's files if you voluntarily and freely permit them to view them. A person whom the police see as having authority can also grant the consent. It can be your spouse, colleague, employer, relative, or domestic partner if they also utilize and can access your computer.

Whether your employer has the authority to give permission to a police search of the work computer hinges on the circumstances under which you utilize your computer. Your employer has the authority to permit it if they exercise control over your computer and how you use it. On the other hand, if you carry your personal tablet or laptop to your office and leave it there, your employer does not have the authority to authorize police to search it, even if you sometimes use it for work-related activities.

Police, immigration, and customs officials can search files on an electronic device at international borders, regardless of whether they believe it contains evidence of criminal activity. It applies to normal border crossings and international airports and to United States citizens and noncitizens.

Specific emergencies can also allow law enforcement to search the files on your laptop without a search warrant. For instance, law enforcers can search the computer files if they can establish the need to act to find a fugitive or help a person who is threatened with death or is in danger of injury or is severely injured. For the computer search to be valid under exigent circumstances, law enforcement should highlight the facts that led them to believe there was an emergency.

The police can also seize your electronic devices without a search warrant if they believe the device contains criminal evidence that could be destroyed. The police will not search the data and files on your electronic storage devices without a search warrant to investigate their contents.

If the police in the Golden State search your electronic device without a search warrant before June 2014, while they have legally arrested you, the prosecution can use the evidence against you. It is because before then, the California law allowed a warrantless cell phone search.

Plain View Exemption

According to the plain view exemption, when law enforcement is searching an asset legally under a search warrant exception or with a warrant, they can search an item that is in plain view and incriminating.

The Exclusionary Rule

When the police have illegally searched or seized you, you are entitled to have the proof that the law enforcer obtained via the unlawful seizure or search suppressed. The police cannot use that evidence against you during your trial.

It is called the exclusionary rule.

Your defense lawyer can fight proof from an illegal search and seizure by bringing a motion to suppress the proof under California Penal Code Section 1538.5 before the trial starts. If the judge grants the motion and the evidence is vital to the prosecutor's case, the court can reduce your charges or even dismiss them.

Fruit of the Poisonous Tree Legal Doctrine

The exclusionary rule also applies to evidence discovered as an indirect result of an illegal search. The unreasonable search or seizure is the poisonous tree, and the proof that the law enforcers obtained through the indirect outcome of the illegal seizure or search is the fruit.

Nevertheless, the prosecution might circumvent the fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine by making any of the arguments below:

  • The proof is extracted from the illegal seizure or search, and the exclusionary rule does not apply to it
  • The proof was discovered via a self-sufficient channel, not through an unreasonable search
  • There exists a reasonable probability that law enforcers would have discovered the proof even without their unreasonable search

Find Experienced Legal Representation Near Me

The 4th Amendment gives you the right against illegal search and seizure, while the exclusionary rule enforces this right. Effectively invoking the exclusionary rule in California and nationwide requires a deep understanding of the 4th Amendment and criminal procedure.

The experienced legal team at Asset Forfeiture Attorney can review whether the police had probable cause when obtaining the search warrant, cross-examine police officers about breaches of procedure and inconsistencies, and file and argue motions to suppress illegally obtained evidence. Please call us at 888-571-5590 to schedule your free case review.