Section 9.7 Seizure of Property

• Library: Criminal Practice 2012 Supp

1. (§9.7) Seizure of Property

For Fourth Amendment purposes, a seizure of property “occurs when there is some meaningful interference with an individual’s possessory interests in that property.” United States v. Jacobsen, 466 U.S. 109, 113 (1984). AccordSoldal v. Cook County, 506 U.S. 56 (1992); State v. Figgins, 839 S.W.2d 630, 640 (Mo. App. W.D. 1992). The Court’s shift from a property-based approach to a privacy-based approach in Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347 (1967), did not “snuff[ ] out the previously recognized protection for property under the Fourth Amendment.” Soldal, 506 U.S. at 64. Moreover, a seizure may implicate the Fourth Amendment even when no search activity has occurred, id. at 68, and even when no interference with privacy is involved. Id. at 69. The standards for seizure set out in Soldal were adopted in Missouri in Bezayiff v....