1. Riley v. California
573 U.S. (2014)
United States Supreme Court
2. Key Facts:
A. Riley was stopped for a traffic violation. An officer seized a cell phone from Riley’s pants pocket without a warrant. Utilizing digital information accessed from the cell phone, detectives discovered records tying Riley to a criminal street gang and that placed Riley’s phone at a shooting three weeks prior to his traffic violation. The State charged Riley in connection to a shooting and sought to add a gang enhancement to his sentence.
B. Riley was convicted in California of assault with a semiautomatic firearm, shooting at an occupied vehicle, and attempted murder.
C. Riley moved to suppress all evidence that the police had obtained from his cell phone. The trial court denied the motion and Riley was charged. Riley was convicted in
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The California Court of Appeal later affirmed the convictions and denied the suppression of evidence on the basis of California Supreme Court’s decision in People v. Diaz.
3. Issue: The Fourth Amendment prohibits unreasonable search and seizure. Riley involves whether police officers can search a suspect’s cell phone without a warrant during an arrest. In Riley v. California, the lower court ruled that a police officer not only can seize and secure a suspect’s cell phone during an arrest, but they can also search the contents of that phone without a warrant or probable cause. Riley moved to suppress all the evidence the officers had obtained during the search of his cell phone on the grounds that the search violated his Fourth Amendment rights.
The Fourth Amendment of the United States Bill of Rights reads, “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 of affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be
The main facts of the case California v. Greenwood are that in the beginning of 1984, the police of Laguna Beach, California had information that gave them reason to believe that a certain person, Billy Greenwood, was dealing drugs. A police officer named Jenny Stracner told the garbage collectors to bring the trash from Greenwood’s residence to the police station so that they could go through the garbage to find if there was evidence of drug dealing. They did. They then obtained a warrant to search the house, and found more evidence. The police then arrested Greenwood.
David Leon Riley, a gangster who is in the Lincoln Park Gang in San Diego, CA was involved in a rival gang shooting. The rival of Riley’s gang shot at the Lincoln Park Gang and then got into Riley’s vehicle, stole it, and drove off. Riley had his cell phone in his possession when he was apprehended. So a detective analyzed the videos and photographs of Riley making gang signs and other gang indicia that were stored on the phone to verify whether Riley was gang affiliated. On August 22, 2009, the police pulled Riley over which he was driving a different car which later they found out that he was driving on expired license registration tags.
In 1988, California v. Billy Greenwood and Dyanne Van Houten was about a suspecting of selling and using drugs in Mr. Greenwood house a narcotic officer told the man to bring her the trash bag which Greenwood had placed out the street for pick up, but as the officer search the bags she found drug paraphernalia which was used as evidence to convict Mr. Greenwood but the lower court revoked it because she search the trash bag without a warrant and that was a violation of the fourth amendment. but the trash bags was placed on the street were any child or animal can unseal it so he could not argue about his privacy if it was out in the police for anything or any person to expose the content of the bags but the court stated “ the police cannot reasonably be expected to avert their eyes from evidence of criminal activity that could have been observed by any member of the public “ this means
In June 1968 the United States Supreme Court affirmed that the conviction allows police officers to interrogate and frisk suspicious individuals.(Chief Justice Warren) Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1
____, 2009 U.S. Lexis 3120 (2009) , used the standards outlined in Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 357, 88 S. Ct. 507, 19 L. Ed. 2d 576 (1967) which states “searches conducted outside the judicial process, without prior approval by judge or magistrate, are per se unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment – subject only to a few specifically established and well-delineated exceptions.” The court also used Weeks v. United States 232 U.S. 383, 392, 34 S. Ct. 341, 58 L. Ed. 652, T.D. 1964 (1914), which states that a search incident to an arrest is among one of the exceptions to the warrant requirement.
Although Diaz was found guilty, the
And if those considered free of criminal involvement may nevertheless be searched or inspected under civil statutes, it is difficult to understand why the Fourth Amendment would prevent entry onto their property to recover evidence of a crime not committed by them but by others. As we understand the structure and language of the Fourth Amendment and our cases expounding it, valid warrants to search property may be issued when it is satisfactorily demonstrated to the magistrate that fruits, instrumentalities, or evidence of crime is located on the premises. The Fourth Amendment has itself struck the balance between privacy and public need, and there is no occasion or justification for a court to revise the Amendment and strike a new balance by denying the search warrant in the circumstances present here and by insisting that the investigation proceed by subpoena duces tecum, whether on the theory that the latter is a less intrusive alternative or
Diaz that the police are not required to have a warrant in order to search the information on someone’s phone at the time of their arrest. In this case checking Diaz’s phone was lawful because it occurred during a search incident to arrest. A search incident to a lawful arrest allows police to perform a warrantless search of an arrested person in the interest of officer safety, destruction of evidence and prevention of escape. Based on this ruling, the digital contents of a cell phone do not threaten the safety of police officers. It makes sense for officers to secure the phone to make sure there is no potential harm, but data on the phone cannot harm anybody.
Billy is on the phone with Bob while they are talking on the phone and someone coughs and it is neither of them. Well, the government are the only ones who can hack phones and listen to phone calls, the 4th amendment has allowed this to happen. The 4th amendment has gavin the right to law enforcement to be cruel and unfair about a search and seizure. Without a warrant you cannot search a person, well not anymore, the government can search anyone at any time in some scenarios. Normally, there is an abundant amount of evidence used to be given the permission to search one’s belongings, but since 9/11 law enforcement needs little evidence to be provided a search warrant.
In November 1978, Proposition 7 passed in California which created automatic appeals on death penalty cases, “cases in which the death penalty has been decreed are automatically reviewed by the California Supreme Court” (par. 19.). The automatic review created a system where every death sentence would be reviewed by the California Supreme Court. This is one cause of court delays in the appeal process. Scott Howe is a researcher at Chapman University School of law who investigated the severe backlog of cases to be heard by the courts. Howe observed that “death sentences have been generated in the trial courts at a much greater rate than they have been resolved on direct appeal” (1452).
Justice Clarence Thomas was nominated to be on the Supreme Court in 1991 and was described by Halliburton as “an honor that was to carry Clarence Thomas to the height of fame and to the brink of disaster” (13). As it pertains to his position on the court and how he functions in various cases he can be described by many words: conservative, originalist, even a textualist. These characteristics have influenced the interpretation of laws and the Constitution since the nineties unto today. The Fourth Amendment states: “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 to be seized.
According to the Fourth Amendment, people have the right to be secure in their private property, and may only be searched with probable cause. However, in a recent case, this right was violated by the government. An Oregon citizen, with the initials of DLK, was suspected of growing marijuana in his home. The federal government used a thermal imager to scan his home, and were later given a warrant to physically search his home. However, many remain divided over whether or not this scan was constitutional, as there was no warrant at the time of the scan.
The Verdict discussed how both cases were attempting to suppress evidence from their cell phones which now contain much more information than they once did. Cases like this continue to shape our rights. The fourth amendment is here to protect ourselves from being incriminated. In modern day the fourth amendment is in question due to new technology.
The fourth amendment can be beneficial but, it can also to some U.S. citizens be invasion of privacy. The fourth amendment states “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated,” some U.S. citizens believe that Law Enforcement, the Government and the NSA are violating the required guidelines of the Fourth Amendment. The NSA is conducted a mass U.S. surveillance not to believe specific individuals may be engaging in terrorist activity, but instead to believe all of us may be engaging in such activity. The government mass surveillance proves that U.S. citizens are considered suspects at all times. With the Patriot Act the NSA has access to
Since the amendments were established, they were used to help citizens with their individual rights. The fourth amendment is one of the most violated amendments throughout history of public officials. The Fourth Amendment clearly sates, that people have the right to be secure in their person, houses, paper, and against unreasonable search and seizures. Even if a person is guilty, if their fourth amendment is violated, the evidence that is obtained will not be used in court. After such incidences involving the fourth amendment, the plain view doctrine was put in place so that an officer is able to seize without a warrant and obtain evidence from a suspect.