Opinion ID: 2010460
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Certain types of searches and seizures are excluded from the Fourth Amendment's probable cause and warrant requirements.

Text: In Katz v. United States, [108] the Supreme Court stated a basic constitutional rule that warrantless searches are per se unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment subject to a few specifically established and well-delineated exceptions. The Fourth Amendment requires that a warrant be supported by probable cause and describe with particular[ity] ... the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized. [109] This limitation safeguards the individual's privacy interest against the wide-ranging exploratory searches the Framers [of the Constitution] intended to prohibit. [110] As a general rule, police are precluded from seizing articles that are not specifically described in the search warrant. [111] However, certain types of searches and seizures are valid exceptions to the probable cause and warrant requirements; these include seizures of items in plain view and consent searches. Police officers may seize evidence that is in plain view without a warrant, provided two criteria are satisfied. [112] First, the police must not violate the Fourth Amendment in arriving at the [place] from which the evidence could be plainly viewed. [113] Thus, police may lawfully seize evidence in plain view when executing a search warrant [114] or when conducting a lawful warrantless search. [115] Second, the incriminating character of the evidence seized must be immediately apparent, and police may not disturb or further investigate an item to discern its evidentiary value without probable cause. [116] These types of warrantless seizures are valid even if the officers fully expected to find the seized evidence. [117] In addition to the plain view exception, police officers may also conduct a search and seizure without probable cause or a warrant based upon an individual's voluntary consent. [118] Consent may be express or implied, but this waiver of Fourth Amendment rights need not be knowing and intelligent. [119] To determine whether consent was given voluntarily, courts examine the totality of the circumstances surrounding the consent, including (1) knowledge of the constitutional right to refuse consent; (2) age, intelligence, education, and language ability; (3) the degree to which the individual cooperates with police; and (4) the length of detention and the nature of questioning, including the use of physical punishment or other coercive police behavior. [120] Generally, anyone having a reasonable expectation of privacy in the place being searched may consent to a warrantless search, and any person with common authority over, or other sufficient relationship to, the place or effects being searched can give valid consent. [121]