Fourth Amendment Exceptions

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the Oliver property without a warrant, discovered the marijuana patch and then arrested Oliver without an arrest warrant. The Maine Judicial Court held that “No Trespassing” signs posted around the Oliver property “evinced a reasonable expectation of privacy,” and therefore the court held that the “open fields” doctrine was not applicable to the Oliver case.
Upon hearing the case, the Supreme Court argues that the special protections accorded by the fourth amendment do not extend to open fields. “Open fields do not provide the setting for those intimate activities that the Amendment is intended to shelter from government interference or surveillance.” The court refers to the case of Hester v. United States (1924) which set the precedent for “open field cases” and interprets that case to imply that “an individual may not legitimately demand privacy for activities conducted out of doors in fields, except in the area immediately surrounding the home.” The patch of marijuana being ...

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The court states that the respondent “could have had no reasonable expectation of privacy in the inculpatory items they discarded.” The court states that “Furthermore. . . 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.” Therefore, objects in plain view can not be accorded for under the Fourth Amendment for any reasonable expectation of privacy simply because of the fact that their former owner would discard these items or expose them to public view without any attempt to maintain the privacy of their discarded personal effects. The court argues that the only way in which ...

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