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Consent for law enforcement officers to search.
Chapman v U.S.
A landlord cannot give law-enforcement officers permission to search a motel room or apartment. Even if a motel room is leased for one night or for one hour. Under the law, that room is considered the renter’s home for that time period.
A co-occupant can give permission to law-enforcement officers to search areas in the room that is used by both occupants or common areas.
Georgia v Randolph
Wife called a law-enforcement officer, telling him that her husband was a cocaine user, an allegation that he denied. Wife gave officers consent to search the home. The husband, who was standing right there, refused. The law-enforcement officer searched anyway, finding cocaine with the help of the wife.
(If one occupant consents to a home search, but a physically present co-occupant objects, the search is unreasonable and invalid as to the one who objects.)
Louisiana v Brown
Opening a door of one side of a duplex apartment was lawful with corroboration of the property manager, who provided a concerned citizen’s complaint of armed drug dealers trespassing in the adjacent un-rented apartment unit.
(A search without a warrant into the duplex apartment was objectively reasonable. Trespassers lack a right of privacy in the trespassed premises.)
U.S. v Cooke
Son lived with mama. He told law-enforcement officers: “You will never have consent to enter my home.” Law-enforcement officers went back when he wasn’t there, and mama said: “Sure, come on in.”
(Or said something like that….Good search.)
Louisiana v Seiler
Seiler’s home had been burglarized. The burglary suspect told law-enforcement officers of seeing dope in Seiler’s home. Law-enforcement officers from the burglary and narcotics divisions went to the home to investigate. They knocked on the door, said they were there to investigate the burglary, and requested entry. Seiler let them in. Law-enforcement officers smelled a strong odor of marijuana and saw a marijuana butt in an open Altoids can that was on a sofa in the front room.
(Even if the law-enforcement officers used a pretext to gain entry into the home, it was objectively a valid knock-and-talk. The fact that the entry was pretextual was of no moment. The odor of marijuana and the plain view discovery of the marijuana provided ample probable cause to detain Seiler and search his home; a search warrant was subsequently obtained.)