Criminal Procedure and Constitutional Law
Identify the Clause Before You Analyze
Fourth Amendment rules govern seizures of persons and searches of places; the Fifth governs compelled statements; the Sixth attaches at formal proceedings. Naming the clause correctly eliminates half the wrong answers.
Key concepts: probable cause means facts that would lead a reasonable officer to believe an offense occurred and that evidence is in the place to be searched. Reasonable suspicion means articulable facts below probable cause, sufficient for a Terry stop; a frisk requires the separate suspicion that the person is armed and dangerous. Warrant exceptions: consent (voluntary, limited in scope, revocable), search incident to arrest (the arrestee's person and reaching distance absent a vehicle evidentiary rationale), exigency, automobile (probable cause plus mobility), plain view (lawful vantage plus immediately apparent incriminating character), inventory, and hot pursuit.
Miranda applies to custodial interrogation. Custody is objective - would a reasonable person feel free to leave; interrogation includes words or actions reasonably likely to elicit an incriminating response. Silence alone is not an invocation; a request for counsel must be unambiguous.
The exclusionary rule suppresses evidence and its fruit, with inevitable discovery, attenuation, and independent source as the standard exceptions.
Traps: Miranda is not required for a traffic stop or booking questions; a frisk is not an evidence search; a passenger may challenge the stop without necessarily challenging the car search; consent from someone lacking common authority fails.
Rule of thumb: identify the seizure, then the justification, then the scope - most wrong answers are correct on justification and wrong on scope.
Worked example: During a lawful traffic stop an officer sees a waistband bulge and pats it down. The frisk needs reasonable suspicion of a weapon; the traffic violation alone does not supply it.