This assignment involves applying CRAC legal analysis tool to a sample question. Sample Question: Pattie set her dresser on the curb for pick-up by the garbage company. A police officer found her diary in the dresser.

CRAC legal analysis tool

CRAC is an acronym that stands for: C=Conclusion R=Rule A= Analysis C= Conclusion Sample Question: Pattie set her dresser on the curb for pick-up by the garbage company. A police officer found her diary in the dresser. In her diary, she confessed to multiple counts of identity theft and listed the names and the account numbers of the persons whose identities were stolen. Is the police officer’s conduct a search under the 4th Amendment? Sample Diagramed Answer: No, this does not constitute a search. [Conclusion] In determining whether a search is subject to Fourth Amendment protection, Courts apply the expectation of privacy test.

CRAC legal analysis tool

The expectation of privacy test is a two-part test: 1) “Subjective: an individual exhibits a personal expectation of privacy; and 2) objective: Society recognizes this expectation as reasonable.” {Rule]. Here, Pattie set her dresser out on the curb for pick-up by the garbage company. By so doing, she did not exhibit an expectation of privacy because the dresser and the contents therein were left on the curb and anyone happening upon the dresser could have opened it and discovered the diary. Moreover, an expectation of privacy in a dresser left on a curb is not one that society is prepared to recognize because people frequently leave belongings on the curb, which is widely communicated as fair game for any passerby to claim.

CRAC legal analysis tool

Lastly, these facts are similar to California v. Greenwood, where the Supreme Court held that there was no expectation of privacy in sealed garbage bags left on the curb for pick-up. In this case, however, Pattie did not even try to conceal the dresser, it was open to the public’s view. [Analysis} Thus, the police officer’s conduct is not a search under the Fourth Amendment because Pattie had no reasonable expectation of privacy in the dresser that was left out on the curb and exposed to the public. [Conclusion]  https://youtu.be/TFxPGNoQ_60

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