Welcome to Lawshelf’s video-course
on searches and seizures. This fundamental criminal procedure course looks at
the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable searches and seizures
and its warrant requirement. This is an introductory level course and no prior
experience or knowledge is necessary to participate.
The course stars with
discussion of the fundamentals of the Fourth Amendment, such as when its
protections apply and what is considered a search or seizure. We’ll look at
landmark cases such as Katz v. United States, Mapp v. Ohio and
Justice Brandeis’ famous dissent in Olmstead v. United States and the
effects of these cases in weaving a tapestry of rules that protect our rights
to privacy.
We’ll then focus on the
mechanics of the warrant requirement, including discussion of probable cause
and the procedure for obtaining warrants. We’ll look at the exclusionary and
fruit of the poisonous tree rules that enforce the Fourth Amendment and their
exceptions.
In modules 3 and 4, we’ll
discuss several exceptions to the warrant requirement, which are cases in which
searches can be legal even with no warrants. These include search incident to a
lawful arrest, the automobile exception, consent and others. We’ll also discuss
the controversial “stop and frisk” tactic used by some police forces, endorsed
by the Supreme Court, but denounced by some civil rights groups.
In the last module, we’ll look
at how Fourth Amendment jurisprudence is evolving to meet the changing
landscape of data and data privacy. We’ll look at how the Fourth Amendment
applies to data on the cloud, your GPS devices and data collected by your
Internet Service Provider. Finally, we’ll look at how national security
concerns have been balanced against the right to privacy in federal statutes
and cases.
After completing this course,
we hope that you will be able to apply many Fourth Amendment rules and
doctrines and determine when and whether Fourth Amendment exceptions may apply.
Best of luck and we welcome
your feedback.
Search and Seizure