State v. McCarthy

The basic question presented is whether a wife, by virtue of her status as a joint resident of premises with her husband, may give valid consent to a warrantless search thereof by the police.

At the outset, it should be noted that we harbor doubts as to whether the police activity at appellant’s residence on January 2, 1967, was a “search and seizure” within the contemplation of the Fourth Amendment. It has been stated that a search ordinarily implies a quest by an officer of the law, a prying into hidden places for that *90which is concealed; and that a seizure connotes a forcible dispossession…