Good Faith Applies To Every Fourth Amendment Problem
This trap appears as a wrong-answer choice in 1 active question. Spotting how it is built is the repair: read each example's “why it's attractive” before the “why it's wrong.”
Subject distribution
- Criminal Law1
Example wrong choices
20387_psalms_chess_indictment · CRIMINAL_LAW · Choice AGrant the motion unless the prosecutor proves that the arresting officers acted in good faith.
Why it's attractive
The choice recognizes a familiar good-faith rescue from Fourth Amendment suppression doctrine. The breaker is that the call asks for dismissal and no arrest-derived evidence is being offered.
Why it's wrong
Good faith belongs to the suppression/admissibility lane; the call asks dismissal and no arrest-derived evidence is being offered.
Spot it next time
Ask what the motion requests and whether any arrest-derived evidence is being offered.
20387_psalms_chess_indictment · CRIMINAL_LAW · Choice BDeny the motion only if Peter was released and rearrested with a valid warrant.
Why it's attractive
The choice sells procedural cleanup by making a new valid arrest sound like a cure. The breaker is that independent evidence lets the prosecution proceed without rerunning the arrest.
Why it's wrong
The answer invents a release-and-rearrest prerequisite for prosecution on independent evidence.
Spot it next time
Reject invented 'only if' prerequisites unless the anchor supplies them.
20387_psalms_chess_indictment · CRIMINAL_LAW · Choice CGrant the motion, because an unlawful arrest nullifies any later indictment.
Why it's attractive
The choice sells the moral shortcut that an illegal arrest poisons the whole case. The breaker is that the remedy targets tainted evidence, not the indictment itself.
Why it's wrong
The answer overclaims by making an unlawful arrest nullify any later indictment.
Spot it next time
Name the remedy: suppression of tainted evidence, not automatic dismissal.
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