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MA POST: Constitutional Law and Individual Rights

MA POST · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.

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Constitutional Law and Individual Rights

What this domain tests

Constitutional Law and Individual Rights tests the Massachusetts and federal constitutional limits on police action: stops, frisks, searches, seizures, interrogations, identification, and expressive conduct. The exam favors fact patterns where a facially valid police action fails because of a Massachusetts-specific rule.

Core rules

  • Article 14 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights is the state analogue to the Fourth Amendment and is sometimes more protective.
  • Massachusetts recognizes automatic standing: a defendant charged with a possessory offense may challenge the search even without a reasonable expectation of privacy in the place searched (Commonwealth v. Amendola).
  • There is no good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule for a defective warrant under Article 14 (Commonwealth v. Upton).
  • A Terry stop needs reasonable suspicion, supported by specific and articulable facts, that a crime has occurred, is occurring, or is about to occur. A frisk needs reasonable suspicion that the person is armed and dangerous.
  • An exit order from a vehicle is a seizure; it requires reasonable suspicion of danger, not merely a traffic violation (Commonwealth v. Gonsalves).
  • Consent must be voluntary and can be limited or withdrawn. Custodial interrogation requires Miranda warnings; after arraignment, the Sixth Amendment right to counsel attaches.

Worked example

An officer stops a car for an expired inspection sticker. The driver is polite, produces a valid license and registration, and has no warrants. The officer orders him out for a frisk because the stop occurred at night. That exit order and frisk are unlawful: an expired sticker alone does not supply reasonable suspicion of danger, and nighttime is not a blanket justification. Any weapon found would be suppressed.

Traps

Assuming a frisk automatically follows a stop; using flight alone as reasonable suspicion; treating consent as valid after an illegal stop; and applying federal good-faith doctrine in Massachusetts.