When a convicted felon fled from a traffic stop, officers pursued and arrested him. Then they searched his vehicle and his personal effects.
Can it be a seizure when a person isn’t “seized?”
The Supreme Court recently ruled on a New Mexico case that established when a use of force constitutes a Fourth Amendment seizure.
While Cady recognized that police perform “many civil tasks” in modern society, the “recognition that these tasks exist” is not “an open-ended license to perform them anywhere,” Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in the majority opinion.
Attorney Missy O'Linn explains her "Constitutional Law Crate," which she created as 11 flash cards assembled into a cube, or crate, to give officers a way to remember the most imperative information when testifying in court, such as the three levels of force and Graham v. Connor.
Few of the safeguards granted to individuals in the United States under the Bill of Rights are more vociferously defended than the Fourth Amendment guaranteeing protection against unreasonable searches and seizures. This is especially the case where the entry of private residences is concerned.
Sometimes, people run when they see you coming. May you chase them? If you do, does that amount to a "show of authority" constituting a detention, requiring reasonable suspicion?
Is it OK under the Fourth Amendment to turn a traffic stop into a criminal investigation? Of course it is, provided the justification for the additional investigation is developed during the reasonable duration of the traffic stop—not after.
In a series of cases, the court has upheld searches and seizures made by officers who were mistaken in their understanding of the facts they confronted, or as to the law to be applied.
A defendant cannot suppress evidence if he cannot show that his own legitimate rights were violated in the way it was obtained.
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