CST Fourth Amendment & Privacy Laws 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), which type of surveillance requires law enforcement to obtain a Title III wiretap order?
- Accessing stored emails older than 180 days
- Real-time interception of wire or electronic communications (Correct answer)
- Reviewing publicly posted social media content
- Obtaining call detail records from a carrier
Correct answer: Real-time interception of wire or electronic communications
Title III of ECPA requires a court order (wiretap order) for the real-time interception of wire, oral, or electronic communications.
Question 2: The 'good faith' exception to the exclusionary rule, established in United States v. Leon, allows evidence to be admitted when:
- Officers reasonably relied on a warrant later found to be defective (Correct answer)
- Officers acted without any warrant but believed probable cause existed
- A judge issued the warrant without reviewing probable cause
- Officers exceeded the scope of a valid warrant unintentionally
Correct answer: Officers reasonably relied on a warrant later found to be defective
The good faith exception permits admission of evidence when officers acted in reasonable reliance on a warrant that is subsequently invalidated.
Question 3: Which doctrine holds that information voluntarily shared with a third party (e.g., a bank or phone company) loses Fourth Amendment protection?
- Plain view doctrine
- Third-party doctrine (Correct answer)
- Open fields doctrine
- Curtilage doctrine
Correct answer: Third-party doctrine
The third-party doctrine holds that individuals have no reasonable expectation of privacy in information voluntarily shared with third parties.
Question 4: A surveillance technician installs a camera that captures the interior of a private home through an open window from a public sidewalk. Under Fourth Amendment analysis, this is:
- Permissible because the view is from a public vantage point
- A violation because the home's interior is protected space (Correct answer)
- Permissible because no physical trespass occurred
- Only permissible if law enforcement requested it
Correct answer: A violation because the home's interior is protected space
Even from a public vantage point, capturing the interior of a home where occupants have a reasonable expectation of privacy can constitute a Fourth Amendment violation.
Question 5: The Stored Communications Act (SCA), part of ECPA, governs access to:
- Real-time audio surveillance in workplaces
- Emails and other communications stored by electronic service providers (Correct answer)
- Pen register data collected by ISPs
- Video surveillance footage held by private businesses
Correct answer: Emails and other communications stored by electronic service providers
The SCA protects the privacy of stored wire and electronic communications held by third-party service providers such as email hosts.
Question 6: In Kyllo v. United States, the Supreme Court ruled that using thermal imaging to detect heat inside a home without a warrant violates the Fourth Amendment because:
- Thermal imaging is a physical trespass on private property
- The technology revealed details of the home interior not otherwise visible (Correct answer)
- The homeowner had not consented to being monitored
- Thermal imaging is classified as a wiretapping device under ECPA
Correct answer: The technology revealed details of the home interior not otherwise visible
Kyllo held that using sense-enhancing technology to gather information about a home's interior that could not be obtained without physical entry constitutes a search.
Question 7: Which standard must law enforcement meet to obtain a pen register order (capturing numbers dialed, not call content)?
- Probable cause supported by oath or affirmation
- Reasonable articulable suspicion
- Certification that the information is relevant to an ongoing investigation (Correct answer)
- A full Title III wiretap order
Correct answer: Certification that the information is relevant to an ongoing investigation
A pen register order requires only a certification that the information is relevant to an ongoing criminal investigation, a lower bar than probable cause.
CST Fourth Amendment & Privacy Laws 2
Under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), which type of surveillance requires law enforcement to obtain a Title III wiretap order?