Search

The MBE almost always tests this as a threshold question: before asking whether police had a warrant or an exception, ask whether a search even occurred. The classic tell is a fact pattern with no warrant and no traditional exception — if no reasonable expectation of privacy was infringed (and there was no physical trespass), the Fourth Amendment never triggers and the evidence comes in regardless. Two distinct hooks make conduct a search: sense-enhancing technology not in general public use aimed at a home (a thermal imager, Kyllo), and a physical trespass onto curtilage to gather information (walking a drug dog onto the front porch, Jardines). By contrast, a dog sniff of luggage in public (Place) or of a car’s exterior during a lawful stop (Caballes) is not a search, because it reveals only contraband.

Do not confuse search (privacy) with seizure (possessory interest, or restraint on freedom of movement) — Place itself was no search but the luggage detention was a seizure. The trap is jumping straight to warrant exceptions when the threshold isn’t met. Memory hook: no privacy, no problem — if society wouldn’t deem the expectation reasonable, stop analyzing.