What Is the Relationship Between Custodial Interrogation and the Fourth Amendment?
As previously discussed, although Fourth Amendment issues are involved in all government interrogation situations, we rarely have reason to consider them. Subpoenas, immunity orders, consent, refusals to answer when the person has the right to refuse–all these eliminate the need to consider the relation between the Fourth Amendment and government interrogations. There is, however, one exception. Custodial interrogation implicates Fourth Amendment values in a unique way that has been too long ignored. Think of a police officer attempting to question a suspect in custody. Miranda, based on a Self-Incrimination Clause rationale, characterizes custodial interrogation as presenting an atmosphere of compulsion that tends to force the suspect to answer questions. [FN68] Yet, for Fourth Amendment purposes, this atmosphere can be characterized in a different way. Under the Fourth Amendment, custody lends a kind of false authority to the officer’s attempt to interrogate. Although the officer ha
