Before a court will even entertain the possibility that the search in question was unreasonable, the person being searched must have had a legitimate expectation of privacy. To determine whether the defendant had a legitimate expectation of privacy the courts will look at the following factors: (1) did the person subjectively or actually expect some degree of privacy, and (2) is the person’s expectation objectively reasonable, that is, one that society is willing to recognize?
While John is making a telephone call in a glass enclosed phone booth; he places a bag of cocaine on top of the phone. A police officer walking by notices the bag and arrests John for possession of a controlled substance. At trial, John tries to argue that the search of the phone booth was unreasonable because the officer lacked a warrant. This argument will fail because the court will never even get to the reasonableness of the search.
When police find a bag of cocaine on the top of a phone in a phone booth, it is not a search for Fourth Amendment purposes. It is very unlikely that John would think that a public phone booth is a private place, and even if John did, society is not willing to extend the protections of privacy to public pay phones.
Airports do not necessarily entertain an expectation of privacy -- especially if trying to protect the public
I also recommend you watch the videos that play over on the right side of the screen that talk about searches, strip searches, and expectation of privacy versus public safety.
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Re: Also
Date: 22/11/10 16:04 (UTC)http://resources.lawinfo.com/en/Legal-FAQs/The-4th-Amendment-and-Search-Warrants/Federal/does-the-fourth-amendment-protect-all-searche.html
While John is making a telephone call in a glass enclosed phone booth; he places a bag of cocaine on top of the phone. A police officer walking by notices the bag and arrests John for possession of a controlled substance. At trial, John tries to argue that the search of the phone booth was unreasonable because the officer lacked a warrant. This argument will fail because the court will never even get to the reasonableness of the search.
When police find a bag of cocaine on the top of a phone in a phone booth, it is not a search for Fourth Amendment purposes. It is very unlikely that John would think that a public phone booth is a private place, and even if John did, society is not willing to extend the protections of privacy to public pay phones.
Airports do not necessarily entertain an expectation of privacy -- especially if trying to protect the public
I also recommend you watch the videos that play over on the right side of the screen that talk about searches, strip searches, and expectation of privacy versus public safety.