MA rejects 4A “standing” for a REP analysis

Massachusetts rejects Fourth Amendment “standing” in favor of a reasonable expectation of privacy under the state constitution. Defendant here may have a reasonable expectation of privacy even though something was actually in the possession of his codefendant. Commonwealth v. DeJesus, 2022 Mass. LEXIS 98 (Mar. 15, 2022):

We also take this opportunity to abolish the separate standing requirement in the search and seizure context and clarify that under art. 14 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights, as under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, a defendant need show only a reasonable expectation of privacy in the place searched to contest a search or seizure. In almost all situations, a defendant contesting a search or seizure will need to show his or her own reasonable expectation of privacy in the place searched. In one situation, however, a defendant will be deemed to have another’s reasonable expectation of privacy: where the defendant has been charged with possessing contraband at the time of the search and, also at the time of the search, the property was in the actual possession of a codefendant or in a place where the codefendant had a reasonable expectation of privacy, the defendant may assert the same reasonable expectation of privacy as the codefendant.

Nothing in this opinion should be read to impede a defendant’s ability to litigate his or her own reasonable expectation of privacy or to restrict the reach of such an expectation of privacy as it exists under our current case law.

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