4 Exceptions To The 4th Amendment In Phoenix
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Martin J. King J.D. This article describes the “special needs” exception which applies to searches and seizures conducted without individualized suspicion for the purpose of minimizing a risk of harm.
The four most important remedies are motions to suppress, civil damages actions against individual officers, suits against municipalities, and suits seeking injunctive or declaratory relief.
24 Examples of cases where the special needs exception applies include inspections for building code enforcement, border searches, airport searches, school searches, roadside checkpoints and drug testing of employees at government jobs.
The special needs doctrine evolved from the language of the Fourth Amendment, which determines that searches must be reasonable in order to be constitutional. Absent individualized suspicion leading to probable cause and the issuing of a warrant, a search can be reasonable if the search serves a valid special need.
Other well-established exceptions to the warrant requirement include consensual searches, certain brief investigatory stops, searches incident to a valid arrest, and seizures of items in plain view.
Other well-established exceptions to the warrant requirement include consensual searches, certain brief investigatory stops, searches incident to a valid arrest, and seizures of items in plain view.
But again, under the 4th Amendment the operative word is always reasonableness. Consent is a reasonable exception to the warrant requirement. With voluntary consent from someone who has actual or apparent authority over the place to be searched, agents do not need probable cause or a warrant.
The Fourth Amendment doesn't apply to every governmental search. If the person searched did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the place the government searches (or the item the government seizes), there is no Fourth Amendment violation.
Other well-established exceptions to the warrant requirement include consensual searches, certain brief investigatory stops, searches incident to a valid arrest, and seizures of items in plain view.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things ...
