Opinion of the Court
To Claim Fourth Amendment Protection, There Must Be A Reasonable Expectation Of Privacy
This case was granted certiorari on March 9, 1998. On December 1, by a 5 to 4 vote, the case was reversed and remanded, ruling for Minnesota. The majority opinion was written by Justice Rehnquist. The following is from the case syllabus: A police officer looked in an apartment window through a gap in the closed blind and observed respondents Carter and Johns and the apartment’s lessee bagging cocaine. After respondents were arrested, they moved to suppress cocaine and other evidence obtained from the apartment and their car, arguing that the officer’s initial observation was an unreasonable search in violation…
