The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures. A search is defined as a "violation of a person's reasonable expectation of privacy by the police." Legal issues dealing with searches often turn on the question of whether the person who was searched had a reasonable expectation of privacy at the time and place the search was conducted. In this connection, consider the following set of facts. Maxie was lining up drug contacts from his cell phone while he was driving on the freeway. Without obtaining a search warrant, federal agents intercepted one of his messages and used it to locate Maxie's car and arrest Maxie. Maxie argues that the federal agents violated his reasonable expectation of privacy, and the government denies it.
Your task is to construct two arguments, one supporting Maxie's position, the other supporting the position of the federal agents. There are three controlling cases in this jurisdiction:
U.S. v. Taylor: Federal agents suspected Taylor of illegal distribution of firearms. Without obtaining a search warrant, they planted a listening device on the phone in Taylor's home and used the evidence obtained to arrest Taylor. The court ruled that their action violated Taylor's reasonable expectation of privacy and disallowed the evidence.
U.S. v. Weber: Without obtaining a search warrant, federal agents operating inside U.S. borders intercepted a radio transmission from a plane flying over Mexico. The message mentioned drugs, and it disclosed the location of a landing strip inside the United States. Using this information, the agents met the plane and arrested its pilot for drug smuggling. The court ruled that their action did not violate the pilot's reasonable expectation of privacy.
U.S. v. Robinson: Federal agents were using a telescope to conduct surveillance on the resident of a distant apartment building. Inadvertently they noticed some teenagers smoking crack in a car parked in the lot near the building, and they proceeded to arrest them. The court ruled that their action did not violate the teenagers' reasonable expectation of privacy.