Concept application
A phone search after an arrest
- Unit 3
- 3 points
- About 20 minutes
You read a short scenario about politics and explain how a political institution, behavior or process from the course is at work in it. On the exam: Question 1 of 4 in the free-response section (1 hour 40 minutes for all four, 50% of your score).
The question and its sources
Read the scenario and answer parts A, B, and C.
Scenario
City police officers stopped a driver for speeding and learned that a judge had issued a warrant for her arrest over unpaid court fines. They arrested her and took her to the police station. While she was being booked, an officer picked up her unlocked phone and scrolled through it without seeking a search warrant. He found text messages about selling stolen laptops, and prosecutors charged her with receiving stolen property.
Her lawyer asked the state trial judge to keep the text messages out of her trial. The judge agreed, ruling that the officers had violated her constitutional rights because they had plenty of time to ask a judge for a warrant before searching the phone. Without the messages, the prosecutors did not have enough evidence and dropped the charge.
Source: Hypothetical scenario
Suggested time: 20 minutes
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Part (a)
1 pointDescribe the constitutional protection at issue in the scenario.
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Part (b)
1 pointExplain how the judge's decision reflects the exclusionary rule.
0 / 2,500 characters
Part (c)
1 pointExplain why the city police officers in the scenario had to follow the protection described in part A, even though the Bill of Rights was originally written to limit only the national government.
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