MPTC CONSTITUTIONAL LAW LATEST 2026 EXAM TEST
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS GRADED A+
✔✔Mass constitution Article 14 (XIV) - ✔✔Every subject has a right to be secure from
all unreasonable searches, and seizures, of his person, his house, his papers, and all
his possessions.
✔✔Statutory Law - ✔✔Written and enacted by legislative branches of state or federal
governments. Declare, command, or prohibit something.
✔✔Case Law - ✔✔Decisions by federal and mass courts, primarily the U.S. Supreme
Court, the SJC, and Mass appeals court.
✔✔Objective - ✔✔"Others" - What a reasonable person would do, act, or believe
✔✔Subjective - ✔✔"Self" - What an individual person did or believed
✔✔Reasonable Suspicion - ✔✔Must be based on specific and articulable facts which,
when taken together, would convince a person of reasonable caution to believe that a
person has committed, is committing, or is about to commit a crime.
✔✔Probable Cause - ✔✔Trustworthy facts and circumstances sufficient to convince a
person of reasonable caution to believe that it is more likely than not.
✔✔Probable Cause - in the case of a search. - ✔✔A specific item subject to seizure will
be found in the place to be searched.
✔✔Probable Cause - in the case of an arrest - ✔✔A crime has been committed and the
person to be arrested has committed it.
✔✔Collective Knowledge - ✔✔Knowledge of one is the knowledge of all. Information
held by one may be used to establish reasonable suspicion or probable cause even if
not witnessed firsthand by or communicated to the officer making the stop, search, or
arrest.
✔✔Veracity - ✔✔Whether the source is reliable or believable
✔✔Basis of Knowledge - ✔✔Is how the source or witness acquired the information
✔✔Specific + Articulable facts - ✔✔Area of encounter, Reason for encounter, Officer
Training experience, familiarity of defendant, Defendants nervousness or evasive
conduct, High crime area
, ✔✔Exclusionary Rule - ✔✔Makes any evidence obtained by police in a unreasonable
search and seizure inadmissible in court.
✔✔Fruit of the Poisonous Tree - ✔✔Any evidence directly derived from the illegal
search or evidence found incidental to the unlawful search will, generally speaking, be
suppressed.
✔✔Exclusionary Rule Exceptions - ✔✔Attenuation/Purging the taint, Independent
source, Defective warrant, Invalid arrest
✔✔Attenuation/Purging the taint - ✔✔When unlawful police action leads indirectly to
discovery of evidence or subsequent events reduce the impact of the unlawful action
the court may decide that the evidence was so removed from the misconduct that it will
not be suppressed.
✔✔Voluntary Encounters - ✔✔Police do not need any legal justification to approach,
talk with, or ask questions of any citizens in a public place, so long as the citizen is
willing to listen and voluntarily answer.
✔✔Investigative stops/Threshold inquires/Terry stops - ✔✔Short duration warrantless
seizures used to determine if probable cause exist, specifically if a crime has or will be
committed
✔✔Example of Investigative stops/Threshold inquires/ Terry stops - ✔✔When a officer
through words or conduct, objectively communicated that the officer will use their police
power to coerce the person to stay. I.E - Taking someone's ID, using an authoritative
tone, activating lights.
✔✔Investigative stop/Threshold inquire/Terry stop Limitations - ✔✔Degree of force,
Duration, Scope, Location, Questioning, and inferences.
✔✔Moto Vehicle exit orders are justified where: - ✔✔Belief that the safety of the officers
or other is threatened, Reasonable suspicion of criminal activity, police are conducting a
search of MV on other grounds.
✔✔Frisks - ✔✔Warrantless and limited searches of a persons outer clothing and other
areas in his immediate control for weapons and not evidence.
✔✔What is the legal standard needed to justify a frisk? - ✔✔Reasonable Suspicion
✔✔What is the legal standard needed to justify a investigative search? - ✔✔Probable
Cause
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS GRADED A+
✔✔Mass constitution Article 14 (XIV) - ✔✔Every subject has a right to be secure from
all unreasonable searches, and seizures, of his person, his house, his papers, and all
his possessions.
✔✔Statutory Law - ✔✔Written and enacted by legislative branches of state or federal
governments. Declare, command, or prohibit something.
✔✔Case Law - ✔✔Decisions by federal and mass courts, primarily the U.S. Supreme
Court, the SJC, and Mass appeals court.
✔✔Objective - ✔✔"Others" - What a reasonable person would do, act, or believe
✔✔Subjective - ✔✔"Self" - What an individual person did or believed
✔✔Reasonable Suspicion - ✔✔Must be based on specific and articulable facts which,
when taken together, would convince a person of reasonable caution to believe that a
person has committed, is committing, or is about to commit a crime.
✔✔Probable Cause - ✔✔Trustworthy facts and circumstances sufficient to convince a
person of reasonable caution to believe that it is more likely than not.
✔✔Probable Cause - in the case of a search. - ✔✔A specific item subject to seizure will
be found in the place to be searched.
✔✔Probable Cause - in the case of an arrest - ✔✔A crime has been committed and the
person to be arrested has committed it.
✔✔Collective Knowledge - ✔✔Knowledge of one is the knowledge of all. Information
held by one may be used to establish reasonable suspicion or probable cause even if
not witnessed firsthand by or communicated to the officer making the stop, search, or
arrest.
✔✔Veracity - ✔✔Whether the source is reliable or believable
✔✔Basis of Knowledge - ✔✔Is how the source or witness acquired the information
✔✔Specific + Articulable facts - ✔✔Area of encounter, Reason for encounter, Officer
Training experience, familiarity of defendant, Defendants nervousness or evasive
conduct, High crime area
, ✔✔Exclusionary Rule - ✔✔Makes any evidence obtained by police in a unreasonable
search and seizure inadmissible in court.
✔✔Fruit of the Poisonous Tree - ✔✔Any evidence directly derived from the illegal
search or evidence found incidental to the unlawful search will, generally speaking, be
suppressed.
✔✔Exclusionary Rule Exceptions - ✔✔Attenuation/Purging the taint, Independent
source, Defective warrant, Invalid arrest
✔✔Attenuation/Purging the taint - ✔✔When unlawful police action leads indirectly to
discovery of evidence or subsequent events reduce the impact of the unlawful action
the court may decide that the evidence was so removed from the misconduct that it will
not be suppressed.
✔✔Voluntary Encounters - ✔✔Police do not need any legal justification to approach,
talk with, or ask questions of any citizens in a public place, so long as the citizen is
willing to listen and voluntarily answer.
✔✔Investigative stops/Threshold inquires/Terry stops - ✔✔Short duration warrantless
seizures used to determine if probable cause exist, specifically if a crime has or will be
committed
✔✔Example of Investigative stops/Threshold inquires/ Terry stops - ✔✔When a officer
through words or conduct, objectively communicated that the officer will use their police
power to coerce the person to stay. I.E - Taking someone's ID, using an authoritative
tone, activating lights.
✔✔Investigative stop/Threshold inquire/Terry stop Limitations - ✔✔Degree of force,
Duration, Scope, Location, Questioning, and inferences.
✔✔Moto Vehicle exit orders are justified where: - ✔✔Belief that the safety of the officers
or other is threatened, Reasonable suspicion of criminal activity, police are conducting a
search of MV on other grounds.
✔✔Frisks - ✔✔Warrantless and limited searches of a persons outer clothing and other
areas in his immediate control for weapons and not evidence.
✔✔What is the legal standard needed to justify a frisk? - ✔✔Reasonable Suspicion
✔✔What is the legal standard needed to justify a investigative search? - ✔✔Probable
Cause
