Waiver Of Privacy Interest Through Consent

A. Voluntary Consent

A person’s consent to a search or seizure must be voluntary in order to constitute an effective waiver of Fourth Amendment rights. The voluntariness standard requires examination of the totality of the circumstances, and a person’s lack of knowledge of the Fourth Amendment right to refuse consent is only one factor in that totality.

B. Implied Scope of Ambiguous Consent

If a person’s consent is ambiguous as to its scope, in the case where police receive consent to search a car, this will be construed as consent to search all containers in the car in the absence of express qualifying limitations.

C. Consent by Third Party with Common Authority

Consent by a third party is valid only when that person has common authority that is based in mutual use of property, to which both parties have access or control for most purposes.