"Reasonableness Clause" Versus "Warrant Clause"

• Jurisdiction: Maryland

I. "Reasonableness Clause" versus "Warrant Clause"

The Fourth Amendment's "Reasonableness Clause" protects "[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures." U.S. Const. amend. IV. This right is incorporated against the States through the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause. Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 650-51 (1961) (adopting the exclusionary rule); see also Ker v. California, 374 U.S. 23, 30 (1963) (reinforcing Mapp and delineating the standards for the exclusionary rule).

In Pennsylvania v. Mimms, 434 U.S. 106 (1977), the Supreme Court stated: "The touchstone of our analysis under the Fourth Amendment is always 'the reasonableness in all the circumstances of the particular governmental invasion of a citizen's personal security.'" Id. at 108-09 (quoting Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 19 (1968)); see also Heien v. North Carolina, 574 U.S. 54, 60-61 (2014) ("As the text indicates and we have repeatedly affirmed, the ultimate touchstone of the Fourth Amendment is reasonableness." (citation and internal quotation marks omitted)). Determining whether a search or seizure is reasonable requires courts to "balance between the public interest and the individual's right to personal security free from arbitrary interference by law [enforcement] officers." United States v. Brignoni-Ponce, 422 U.S. 873, 878 (1975); see Wilson v. State, 409 Md. 415, 427 (2009) (Fourth Amendment protects only against unreasonable searches and seizures). In State v. Harding, 196 Md. App. 384, 410 (2010), the Court of Special Appeals stated: "[T]he whole purpose of the Fourth Amendment is to make sure that the police officer, when searching and seizing, acts reasonably." Id. at 410.

The Fourth Amendment also includes the "Warrant Clause," which applies in circumstances in which the Government must or may obtain and execute a warrant. Under the Warrant Clause, "no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the person or things to be seized." U.S. Const. amend. IV. The Warrant Clause may or may not apply, but the Reasonableness Clause always applies.

A. Presumption of a warrant

The Fourth Amendment presumptively requires a warrant, which invokes both the Warrant Clause and the Reasonableness Clause. Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 356-57 (1967). Stated another way, a warrantless search or seizure "is...