Constitutional Law and Civil Rights
This domain tests whether you can apply the Fourth, Fifth, and First Amendments to street-level decisions, and whether you know the DC-specific civil rights overlay - the Human Rights Act, firearms regulation, and the limits on protest enforcement.
Fourth Amendment tiers
- Stop: reasonable suspicion, based on specific and articulable facts, that the person has committed, is committing, or is about to commit an offense.
- Frisk: reasonable suspicion the person is armed and dangerous - a stop alone never authorizes a pat-down.
- Search: probable cause plus a warrant, or a recognized exception (consent, search incident to arrest, exigency, automobile, plain view, inventory).
- Phones and blood: Riley v. California requires a warrant for digital contents; Birchfield and McNeely mean breath is permissible incident to arrest but blood generally needs a warrant or valid consent.
Interrogation
Miranda attaches to custody plus interrogation. Spontaneous statements and routine booking questions do not require warnings. Once counsel is requested, questioning stops.
First Amendment assemblies
MPD policy treats peaceful assembly as protected conduct and requires a dispersal order with a reasonable exit route and time before enforcement. DC Code § 22-1307 (crowding, obstructing, or incommoding) targets actual obstruction of passage or an entrance - not the mere presence of a crowd. Mass arrests without individualized probable cause and a documented warning are the classic failure point.
DC civil rights overlay
DC's Human Rights Act (DC Code § 2-1401.01 et seq.) protects traits broader than federal law, including gender identity, source of income, and status as a victim of domestic violence. Bias-free policing means behavior, not identity, drives the decision. Firearms remain heavily regulated under Title 7 (registration, licensing), and Brady/Giglio obligations require disclosure of officer credibility information.
Worked example
At a demonstration, a group stands in a crosswalk, and a person holds a sign in front of a building's only entrance. Officers broadcast a dispersal order naming the location and giving two minutes and a clear exit direction. The person ignores it until arrested. Lawful? For the crosswalk blockage, yes if the order was heard, reasonable, and an exit existed. For the doorway, the report must state the obstruction was actual - that people could not pass - not simply that the sign was there.
Traps
Treating a frisk as automatic after any stop; calling a consensual encounter a seizure without analyzing whether a reasonable person would feel free to leave; relying on consent after the person has refused; assuming a permit is required to protest.