CONSTITUTIONAL LAW-SEARCH AND SEIZURE AS AN INCIDENT TO LAWFUL ARREST

Petitioners, suspected of carrying on an illegal lottery, had been under police observation for several months, during which time one of the petitioners maintained a room in a rooming house in the District of Columbia. On the day of the arrest, a police officer, without a warrant, but believing the unlawful lottery to be in operation, climbed through a window of the landlady's room, and admitted two other officers. They proceeded to the petitioner's room, where one of the officers looked through the transom. Seeing the petitioners working on an illegal lottery, the officers entered the room, arrested the petitioners and seized various articles in plain view that were used in the lottery.

Petitioners made a timely motion for suppression of the evidence so seized, alleging that the seizure was a violation of their constitutional rights making the evidence inadmissible. The trial court denied the motion and the petitioners were convicted; the court of appeals affirmed. On certiorari to the United States Supreme Court, held, reversed. Even though the arrest may have been lawful, seizure of the lottery equipment without a search warrant was unreasonable and, therefore, a violation of petitioners' constitutional rights.

McDonald v. United States, 335 U.S. 451, 69 S.Ct. 191 (1948).