The plain view doctrine, as set forth in Coolidge, has three basic requirements: (1) the “initial intrusion” bringing the police officer within plain view of the incriminat- ing evidence must be lawful; (2) the police officer’s discovery of the incriminating evi- dence must be inadvertent; and (3) it must be ” …

Dickerson, 508 U.S. 366 (1993), was a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States. The Court unanimously held that, when a police officer who is conducting a lawful patdown search for weapons feels something that plainly is contraband, the object may be seized even though it is not a weapon.

The plain view doctrine allows a police officer to seize objects not described in a warrant when executing a lawful search or seizure if he observes the object in plain view and has probable cause to believe that it is connected with criminal activities.

Curtilage includes the area immediately surrounding a dwelling, and it counts as part of the home for many legal purposes, including searches and many self-defense laws.

The First Amendment protection of privacy is greatest when the invasion of privacy occurs in the home or in other places where an individual has a reasonable expectation of privacy. For example, despite the fact that obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment, in Stanley v.

The purpose of the USA Patriot Act is to deter and punish terrorist acts in the United States and around the world.

It undermines the privacy protections of the Fourth Amendment by eroding the line between intelligence gathering and gathering evidence for a criminal proceeding, and expands the ability of the government to spy through wiretaps, computer surveillance, access to medical, financial, business and educational records and …