Who may consent to the search of a home hinges not upon the law of property, but rests rather on mutual use of the property by persons generally having joint access or control for most purposes. There is no rigid rule that a weekend guest may not grant consent to search. Whether an individual has the constitutional authority to invite law enforcement into the home of another is determined on a case-by-case basis. State v. Sobczak, 2013 WI 52, 347 Wis. 2d 724, 833 N.W.2d 59, 10-3034. Specific factors that weigh on whether an individual has the constitutional authority to invite law enforcement into the home of another include: 1) the relationship of the consenter to the defendant, not only in the familial sense, but also in terms of the social ties between the two; 2) the duration of the consenter’s stay in the premises; 3) a defendant’s decision to leave an individual in the defendant’s home alone; 4) various other miscellaneous facts that may illuminate the depth of an individual’s relationship to the premises, such as whether the individual has been given a key, keeps belongings in the home, or lists the residence as the individual’s address on a driver’s license. State v. Sobczak, 2013 WI 52, 347 Wis. 2d 724, 833 N.W.2d 59, 10-3034. See also State v. Torres, 2018 WI App 23, 381 Wis. 2d 268, 911 N.W.2d 388, 16-1398. To validate the search of an object within a home on consent, the government must satisfy the same requirements as apply to consent to enter, namely, that the consenter had joint access or control of the object for most purposes. State v. Sobczak, 2013 WI 52, 347 Wis. 2d 724, 833 N.W.2d 59, 10-3034. When consent to search a vehicle was given by the vehicle’s driver, a passenger did not effectively withdraw the driver’s consent to search a briefcase contained in the car when the passenger asked, “Got a warrant for that?” Police officers confronted with ambiguous statements, such as the passenger’s in this case, are not under a duty to ask follow-up questions to clarify the ambiguity. State v. Wantland, 2014 WI 58, 355 Wis. 2d 135, 848 N.W.2d 810, 11-3007. Involuntary consent is invalid, regardless of any prior illegality or attenuation therefrom. Attenuation analysis is not voluntariness analysis, and it is not meant to cure the involuntary waiver of rights. Rather, attenuation analysis examines whether voluntary consent is tainted by prior illegality. Attenuation analysis examines three factors to determine whether consent is sufficiently attenuated from illegal action to be removed from the taint of illegality: 1) the temporal proximity of the official misconduct and seizure of evidence; 2) the presence of intervening circumstances; and 3) the purpose and flagrancy of the official misconduct. State v. Hogan, 2015 WI 76, 364 Wis. 2d 167, 868 N.W.2d 124, 13-0430. The attenuation test is the proper test to apply for analyzing voluntary consent to search a vehicle when that consent comes after the illegal extension of a traffic stop. Attenuation analysis may not be necessary in all cases; it is only appropriate when, as a threshold matter, courts determine that the challenged evidence is in some sense the product of illegal governmental activity. If the unlawful police conduct is not a “but-for” cause of the search, attenuation analysis is unnecessary because the consent is not tainted by the unlawful conduct in such a case. State v. Hogan, 2015 WI 76, 364 Wis. 2d 167, 868 N.W.2d 124, 13-0430. After a traffic stop has ended, police may interact with a driver as they would with any citizen on the street. If a person is not seized, police may request consent to search even absent reasonable suspicion. State v. Hogan, 2015 WI 76, 364 Wis. 2d 167, 868 N.W.2d 124, 13-0430. When after consenting to a blood draw, the defendant asked the officer if the officer needed to obtain a warrant to draw the defendant’s blood and the officer shook his head no in response, the officer’s response did not vitiate the voluntariness of the defendant’s consent. The officer did not need a warrant because the defendant already had consented, and the officer was not obligated to explain further than he did. State v. Brar, 2017 WI 73, 376 Wis. 2d 685, 898 N.W.2d 499, 15-1261. A third party may consent to a search of an individual’s property when the third party shares “common authority” over that property. The same common authority standard that applies in the search context also determines whether a third party can consent to a seizure. Whether common authority exists depends on whether the third party has joint access to or control over the individual’s property such that the individual has assumed the risk of the intrusion. In this case, the fact that the defendant had an affair, that he was living in the basement, and that his spouse planned to divorce him did not overcome the spouse’s common authority over their marital property when the spouses continued to cohabitate in the marital home and had joint access to one another’s living areas. State v. Abbott, 2020 WI App 25, 392 Wis. 2d 232, 944 N.W.2d 8, 19-0021. In this case, law enforcement exceeded the scope of consent to search a single user account on a shared computer when they began their forensic examination of a computer’s hard drive by examining the drive’s recycle bin container, which aggregated the deleted files of all the computer’s users, including the defendant’s. When a person limits the person’s consent to search a particular user account on an electronic device, a reasonable person would interpret that consent as being limited to only those files accessible from that account’s user interface. State v. Jereczek, 2021 WI App 30, 398 Wis. 2d 226, 961 N.W.2d 70, 19-0826. A court may not suppress otherwise admissible evidence on the ground that it was seized unlawfully from a third party not before court. United States v. Payner, 447 U.S. 727, 100 S. Ct. 2439, 65 L. Ed. 2d 468 (1980). Defendants charged with crimes of possession may only claim the benefits of the exclusionary rule if their own 4th amendment rights have in fact been violated. United States v. Salvucci, 448 U.S. 83, 100 S. Ct. 2547, 65 L. Ed. 2d 619 (1980). A warrantless entry to premises is permitted under the 4th amendment when entry is based upon third-party consent and officers reasonably believed the third party possessed authority to consent. Illinois v. Rodriguez, 497 U.S. 177, 110 S. Ct. 2793, 111 L. Ed. 2d 148 (1990). An officer’s opening of a closed bag found on the floor of a suspect’s car during a search of the car made with the suspect’s consent was not unreasonable. Florida v. Jimeno, 500 U.S. 248, 111 S. Ct. 1801, 114 L. Ed. 2d 297 (1991). A defendant can urge suppression of evidence obtained in violation of constitutional protections only if that defendant’s rights were violated. United States v. Padilla, 508 U.S. 77, 113 S. Ct. 1936, 123 L. Ed. 2d 635 (1993). The 4th amendment does not require that a seized person must be advised that the person is free to go before the person’s consent to a search can be recognized as voluntary. Ohio v. Robinette, 519 U.S. 33, 117 S. Ct. 417, 136 L. Ed. 2d 347 (1996). A physically present inhabitant’s express refusal of consent to a police search is dispositive as to that inhabitant, regardless of the consent of a fellow occupant. If a potential defendant with self-interest in objecting is in fact at the door and objects, the co-tenant’s permission does not suffice for a reasonable search, whereas the potential objector, nearby but not invited to take part in the threshold colloquy, loses out. Georgia v. Randolph, 547 U.S. 103, 126 S. Ct. 1515, 164 L. Ed. 2d 208 (2006). When a police officer makes a traffic stop, the driver of the car and its passengers are seized within the meaning of the 4th amendment and so may challenge the constitutionality of the stop. Brendlin v. California, 551 U.S. 249, 127 S. Ct. 2400, 168 L. Ed. 2d 132 (2007). Consent by one resident of jointly occupied premises is generally sufficient to justify a warrantless search. However, a physically present inhabitant’s express refusal of consent to a police search of the inhabitant’s home is dispositive as to the inhabitant, regardless of the consent of a fellow occupant. An occupant who is absent due to a lawful detention or arrest stands in the same shoes as an occupant who is absent for any other reason. That the arrested occupant had made an objection to the search of the premises before the occupant’s removal did not change the sufficiency of a still present occupant’s subsequent consent. Fernandez v. California, 571 U.S. 292, 134 S. Ct. 1126, 188 L. Ed. 2d 25 (2014). As a matter of federal law, an appellant cannot assert an alleged violation of his wife’s 4th amendment rights as a basis for suppression, at his trial, of evidence taken from his wife. Mabra v. Gray, 518 F.2d 512 (1975). Zurcher: Third Party Searches and Freedom of the Press. Cantrell. 62 MLR 35 (1978).
But What of Wisconsin’s Exclusionary Rule? The Wisconsin Supreme Court Accepts Apparent Authority to Consent as Grounds for Warrantless Searches. Schmidt. 83 MLR 299 (1999).
State v. Stevens: Consent by Deception in the Context of Garbage Searches. Thompson. 1987 WLR 191.
probable cause and warrants
Probable cause meeting constitutional requirements for issuance of the search warrant of the defendant’s premises was not established by testimony of a police officer that a youth found in possession of amphetamines informed the officer that a shipment of marijuana was being delivered to the defendant’s premises, when it was established that the officer had no previous dealings with the informant and could not personally attest to the informant’s reliability. The warrant was invalid. State ex rel. Furlong v. Waukesha County Court, 47 Wis. 2d 515, 177 N.W.2d 333 (1970).