4th Amendment Issues Regarding Property-in-Property

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by: Ryan Scott • July 13, 2019 • no comments

Orin Kerr talks about a recurring 4th Amendment issue here.

Opening paragraph:

A common problem in Fourth Amendment law that Supreme Court cases leave surprisingly unresolved is what you might call the "property-in-property" problem. It runs like this. Say a person has evidence of crime A that he puts inside his own bag or backpack or other container B. Our person then puts B inside a house, car, or other place C that they don't own or otherwise lawfully control. The police search place C, and they find container B. The police then search container B and find evidence A. That leads to charges, and a Fourth Amendment dispute over the admissibility of evidence A.