The U.S. Supreme has often held that “Mere police questioning does not constitute a
seizure”, Florida v. Bostick, 501 U.S. 429, 434 (1991), whether or not the officer doing
the questioning has any basis for suspecting an individual of criminal activity. If the
circumstances surrounding the knock-and-talk are such that the person does not feel
free to leave and stop answering questions, the questioning becomes “custodial” and the
person is ‘seized” under the Fourth Amendment. With that noted, what factors do you
think should be recognized as factors that should be taken into consideration when
judging whether a person should reasonably consider him/herself in “custody”? Explain
your responses.
Requiring convicted felons to give blood samples for DNA databases violates the
Fourth Amendment.
People have the same degree of protection under the Fourth Amendment in their home
as they do in their automobile.