This topic contains a solution. Click here to go to the answer

Author Question: Advanced technologies (such as thermal imagers, GPS trackers, email messages, and smartphones) ... (Read 122 times)

jparksx

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 570
Advanced technologies (such as thermal imagers, GPS trackers, email messages, and smartphones) present unique challenges related to the Fourth Amendment. Discuss challenges faced by courts regarding searches and advanced technology.
 
  What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

What is the third-party doctrine? Why is it important?
 
  What will be an ideal response?



Related Topics

Need homework help now?

Ask unlimited questions for free

Ask a Question
Marked as best answer by a Subject Expert

janieazgirl

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 300
Answer to Question 1

The courts must determine whether a search occurred when advanced technology is used. The different types of technology each represent their own issues. With thermal imaging, the courts had to decide if measuring heat from a house using technology not readily available to the public was a search. GPS tracking required determining if a search had occurred when placing a tracking device on a vehicle that would be entering a constitutionally protected space (private property). Regarding email, the courts had to decide whether email communication is private and deserving of constitutional protection. Finally, regarding smartphones, courts had to determine if text messages are protected by the Fourth Amendment.

Answer to Question 2

According to the SCOTUS-created third-party doctrine (based on the assumption of risk theory): whenever people knowingly reveal incriminating secrets, they assume the risk that false friends will use the secrets against them in criminal cases. In other words, if a person tells secrets to someone they trust, and the trusted party turns out to be a government agent, it is the person's own fault. The third-party doctrine is important because it allows law enforcement officers to work undercover.





 

Did you know?

When Gabriel Fahrenheit invented the first mercury thermometer, he called "zero degrees" the lowest temperature he was able to attain with a mixture of ice and salt. For the upper point of his scale, he used 96°, which he measured as normal human body temperature (we know it to be 98.6° today because of more accurate thermometers).

Did you know?

Medication errors are three times higher among children and infants than with adults.

Did you know?

Giardia is one of the most common intestinal parasites worldwide, and infects up to 20% of the world population, mostly in poorer countries with inadequate sanitation. Infections are most common in children, though chronic Giardia is more common in adults.

Did you know?

Nitroglycerin is used to alleviate various heart-related conditions, and it is also the chief component of dynamite (but mixed in a solid clay base to stabilize it).

Did you know?

Despite claims by manufacturers, the supplement known as Ginkgo biloba was shown in a study of more than 3,000 participants to be ineffective in reducing development of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease in older people.

For a complete list of videos, visit our video library